Marketers wanting to maximise search engine optimisation for their websites have been urged by a commentator to take time selecting their keywords.
Writing for PC World Business Centre, Christopher Null suggested using online keyword tools to find the most popular search terms and stressed the need to optimise words that are both relevant to the site and attract traffic.
Mr Null also emphasised the importance of putting keywords in title tags, as these are given special significance by search engines.
Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz also told Mr Null that keyword-optimised title tags are helpful for viewers.
Recently, Kevin Gibbons of SEOptimise listed ways in which SEO could be used along with customer interaction.
Writing for E-consultancy, he warned against misleading customers, as they could use the internet to uncover information and thus develop a bad image of the firm.
He also urged SEO providers to use their expertise and explain it properly if a customer has an inaccurate or outdated understanding of it.
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Showing posts with label Keyword Practices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keyword Practices. Show all posts
Friday, December 12, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
5 reasons people don’t read your blog
The first step to increasing your web presence is understanding why no one is currently reading your blog. Here are 5 reasons your blog is dead.
1. It Isn’t Optimized- If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times—the search engines love fresh content. That’s why it’s so important that you optimize your blog posts. By including relevant keywords in your titles and content, you increase your chances of ranking well in the search engines. High organic search rankings will earn you a steady flow of traffic.
2. You Aren’t Marketing It- A blog is like any other property—you have to market it if you want people to see it. Beyond optimizing your posts, you need to push your content on the social media sites. While you might say “But I already submit all my posts to Digg and other sites.” Social media marketing is about more thank clicking submit. It takes time and a commitment to the community to learn how to properly market content through social media.
3. Your Titles are Boring- The internet is overflowing with blogs. Recent estimates put the total number of blogs well in excess of 100 million. With so many posts pulling at online users’ attention, it’s crucial that you give people a reason to click on your blog. How can you do this? The best way is by creating compelling titles that force people to click. Ask yourself, “if I saw this title, would I click on it?” If not, you need to change it.
4. You Don’t Offer Anything New- What do you offer users that they can’t find anywhere else? If you’re just another “me too” blogger, you don’t give readers an incentive to follow your blog. It’s the same old content that’s been done a thousand times before. Offer something new. Just give your true pinion, and that will help separate you from the pack.
5. The Content Isn’t Scannable- There’s nothing wrong with having a lot to say. Just make sure you don’t present your content in a format that scares readers away. Long blocks of text with no whitespace will cause visitors to click “back” immediately. Break it up into short passages with bold headings so that it’s easier to scan.
Read More..
1. It Isn’t Optimized- If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times—the search engines love fresh content. That’s why it’s so important that you optimize your blog posts. By including relevant keywords in your titles and content, you increase your chances of ranking well in the search engines. High organic search rankings will earn you a steady flow of traffic.
2. You Aren’t Marketing It- A blog is like any other property—you have to market it if you want people to see it. Beyond optimizing your posts, you need to push your content on the social media sites. While you might say “But I already submit all my posts to Digg and other sites.” Social media marketing is about more thank clicking submit. It takes time and a commitment to the community to learn how to properly market content through social media.
3. Your Titles are Boring- The internet is overflowing with blogs. Recent estimates put the total number of blogs well in excess of 100 million. With so many posts pulling at online users’ attention, it’s crucial that you give people a reason to click on your blog. How can you do this? The best way is by creating compelling titles that force people to click. Ask yourself, “if I saw this title, would I click on it?” If not, you need to change it.
4. You Don’t Offer Anything New- What do you offer users that they can’t find anywhere else? If you’re just another “me too” blogger, you don’t give readers an incentive to follow your blog. It’s the same old content that’s been done a thousand times before. Offer something new. Just give your true pinion, and that will help separate you from the pack.
5. The Content Isn’t Scannable- There’s nothing wrong with having a lot to say. Just make sure you don’t present your content in a format that scares readers away. Long blocks of text with no whitespace will cause visitors to click “back” immediately. Break it up into short passages with bold headings so that it’s easier to scan.
Read More..
Friday, November 7, 2008
Top 10 Keyword Practices To Kill Your Business
Keywords are an essential part of Search Engine Optimization and PPC Advertising. But all marketing efforts, and money, can go to waste if they are not properly utilized. Here are the most common keyword pitfalls websites and advertisers often dive into.
1. Hiding and Shrinking of keywords.
Using your keywords for your website's content will highly optimize your site. But try going to a website and finding small words just below the copyright or press ctrl-A to highlight all the text. Hiding or shrinking keywords within a website have terrible consequences. Not only will your website not be shown for those keywords, you can actually be banned from search engines.
2. Keyword Overstuffing.
When you are finished with your website's content, read it aloud at least twice to measure how it sounds. When you repeat the same keyword phrase twice in the same sentence or three times in a single paragraph, you have gone overboard. Select the best keywords to use in your content and stick to them. If there are too much to talk about, break them down in sections or use them in other pages of your site.
3. Having your content or keywords as an image.
Search engines have yet to develop a way to index text within an image, so until then, avoid having your content and keywords within images and pictures in your website.
4. Over tagging.
Inputting your search phrases in the meta title, description and keywords of your site is advisable. But do not just insert them for the sake of indexing, there is no point repeating your keywords over and over again in your metatags.
5. Generic Keywords.
This is practically a major mistake. Not only do using generic one-word keywords generate too much competition, they are expensive and oftentimes not as effective as people would think.
Let’s try the consumer perspective. If we are looking to buy a specific product, we would not just search for a general term. We would look for a specific brand, model, and when necessary if it’s affordable. So, people searching for "cheap ipods nano-chromatic" are more likely looking to purchase than people keying in just "mp3 players" or even "ipod".
6. Choosing Competitive Keywords.
Choosing popular keywords often has an immediate consequence of having too many websites using them or advertisers bidding on them.
For SEO, it is hard to compete with other websites, especially older more established ones, for a great position. For PPC, bidding on popular keywords with too much competition is a money losing scheme.
7. Choosing Keywords with NO competition.
Keywords with 0 competition can mean that no one is using them. There is no point ranking number one for a keyword no one looks for. Enough said.
8. Bidding on unrelated keywords.
For PPC advertisers, this is a common mistake. Even if there is low competition and high popularity for this keyword, it would not matter. Imagine bidding on a keyword that will not generate money for your website because that was not what the searcher was looking for in the first place.
9. Not knowing your competition.
If you are an up and coming website, this is a common mistake. Bidding or taking on long tail keywords hoping that alone will be enough. There are billions of websites out there employing the use of keywords to sell. You can’t ignore competition.
There are advanced keyword research tools that provide you with information on competitors’ keywords as well as statistics on how these terms fair in the market. You find out what other advertisers or websites are doing either to improve on their strategies or to avoid them all together, just the same, you cannot avoid not knowing who your competitors are.
10. Not monitoring your keywords.
Some keywords will work for your ad campaign or website for a particular month but come the next season hit an all time low in search or click through rates. It pays to monitor what works and what doesn’t.
It is true that keyword research and application is not an exact science and takes a lot of work. But taking time in properly analyzing, choosing and utilizing your keywords will bring more good in your business in the long run.
Read More..
1. Hiding and Shrinking of keywords.
Using your keywords for your website's content will highly optimize your site. But try going to a website and finding small words just below the copyright or press ctrl-A to highlight all the text. Hiding or shrinking keywords within a website have terrible consequences. Not only will your website not be shown for those keywords, you can actually be banned from search engines.
2. Keyword Overstuffing.
When you are finished with your website's content, read it aloud at least twice to measure how it sounds. When you repeat the same keyword phrase twice in the same sentence or three times in a single paragraph, you have gone overboard. Select the best keywords to use in your content and stick to them. If there are too much to talk about, break them down in sections or use them in other pages of your site.
3. Having your content or keywords as an image.
Search engines have yet to develop a way to index text within an image, so until then, avoid having your content and keywords within images and pictures in your website.
4. Over tagging.
Inputting your search phrases in the meta title, description and keywords of your site is advisable. But do not just insert them for the sake of indexing, there is no point repeating your keywords over and over again in your metatags.
5. Generic Keywords.
This is practically a major mistake. Not only do using generic one-word keywords generate too much competition, they are expensive and oftentimes not as effective as people would think.
Let’s try the consumer perspective. If we are looking to buy a specific product, we would not just search for a general term. We would look for a specific brand, model, and when necessary if it’s affordable. So, people searching for "cheap ipods nano-chromatic" are more likely looking to purchase than people keying in just "mp3 players" or even "ipod".
6. Choosing Competitive Keywords.
Choosing popular keywords often has an immediate consequence of having too many websites using them or advertisers bidding on them.
For SEO, it is hard to compete with other websites, especially older more established ones, for a great position. For PPC, bidding on popular keywords with too much competition is a money losing scheme.
7. Choosing Keywords with NO competition.
Keywords with 0 competition can mean that no one is using them. There is no point ranking number one for a keyword no one looks for. Enough said.
8. Bidding on unrelated keywords.
For PPC advertisers, this is a common mistake. Even if there is low competition and high popularity for this keyword, it would not matter. Imagine bidding on a keyword that will not generate money for your website because that was not what the searcher was looking for in the first place.
9. Not knowing your competition.
If you are an up and coming website, this is a common mistake. Bidding or taking on long tail keywords hoping that alone will be enough. There are billions of websites out there employing the use of keywords to sell. You can’t ignore competition.
There are advanced keyword research tools that provide you with information on competitors’ keywords as well as statistics on how these terms fair in the market. You find out what other advertisers or websites are doing either to improve on their strategies or to avoid them all together, just the same, you cannot avoid not knowing who your competitors are.
10. Not monitoring your keywords.
Some keywords will work for your ad campaign or website for a particular month but come the next season hit an all time low in search or click through rates. It pays to monitor what works and what doesn’t.
It is true that keyword research and application is not an exact science and takes a lot of work. But taking time in properly analyzing, choosing and utilizing your keywords will bring more good in your business in the long run.
Read More..
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