Search Engine Optimization

In this day and age, SEO is no easy task. From the lack of Google keyword data in analytics programs to the infamous Panda update, a constant barrage of changes in the SEO world that have made the work of optimizing websites all the more difficult. One of the most challenging aspects of SEO is undoubtedly building links. But having a natural link profile is essential to your website’s success because search engines penalize sites with backlinks that weren’t “earned.” If you are actively building backlinks for your website, here are 7 ways to make them appear more natural to the search engines.

1. Use a variety of anchor text

It’s common for SEOs to build multiple links using the same keyword anchor text, but it’s better to use different versions of the keyword you’re hoping to rank for when creating anchor text for backlinks. For example, if you’re trying to rank for the term, “Omaha web design,” you can target related keywords like, “web design services in Omaha” or “Omaha web designer.” It’s also a good idea to use your website’s URL as anchor text sometimes because it will make your links look more natural.

2. Avoid purchasing backlinks

Never buy links because the search engines will penalize you if they find out about it. And besides, most of the links that are sold these days are of low quality and will only hurt your website’s rankings in the long run.

3. Build links gradually and steadily

Don’t build links too quickly because it will raise eyebrows, unless of course your site was featured on CNN’s homepage. To avoid arousing the suspicion of the search engines, build links to your site gradually and steadily. Remember: quality always trumps quantity when it comes to links.

4. Get many different types of links

While editorial links are generally the best types of links to have, you shouldn’t limit yourself to one type of link. Try to obtain links from various sources, including blog rolls, resource pages, high quality directories, social media sites, etc.

5. Don’t just build links to your homepage

While it’s important to build links to your homepage, it’s also a good idea to get links that point to internal pages of your site because it shows the search engines that other pages of your website are attracting interest.

6. Build your presence in social media

Social media isn’t going away any time soon and anybody who’s anybody online needs to have a social media presence. Links that are shared via social media aren’t as valuable as links from standard websites, but they still count towards your rankings, so you need to be sure to include them in your link portfolio.

7. Get links from sites in the same industry

Links from websites that are specific to your industry are hands down the most valuable. Perform competitive backlink analysis to determine what industry sites are linking to your competitors, and then try to get links from the same sources.

The SEO community is currently up in arms because Google recently announced that it would no longer share referral data from logged-in users. That means website owners can no longer find out what keywords visitors logged into their Google accounts are using to reach their sites. In the past, webmasters could see it in their analytics programs if visitors typed in phrases like, “black dress” or “Los Angeles plumber,” to reach their sites. Now, all they can see is “(not provided).”

This is a huge blow for SEO professionals and webmasters because it makes it all the more difficult for them to determine what keywords to focus on in their SEO campaigns. How are we to know which keywords have the highest ROI and whether we’re maximizing the effectiveness of our SEO campaigns if we don’t have access to information about user intent?

Google’s So-Called Privacy Concerns

Google claims that it made SSL Search the default encryption protocol because it wants to protect the privacy of its users. However, Google is still providing query data for paid search listings. So, basically, Google is only giving referral data to advertisers. Some folks in the SEO community take this to mean that Google doesn’t actually care about their users’ privacy and just wants to force more companies to use AdWords.

Another reason why Google’s recent move has upset SEO pros and webmasters is that many of them rely on search intent data to customize their sites’ content. If Google wants webmasters to improve the user experience that their websites offer, they need to continue providing them with search referral data for logged-in users. Many marketers rely on search intent data to customize their sites’ content.

If Google truly cared about user privacy, it wouldn’t offer query data to advertisers, either! But hiding query data from advertisers would clearly be bad for business because it would make it impossible for advertisers to measure the ROI of their PPC campaigns.

What Comes Next?

There’s no denying that losing referral data is a huge setback, but it doesn’t mean that your SEO campaign will crumble. There are a few things you should do. First of all, track the quantity and percentage of lost keyword data. Google has said that they expect the percentage of lost keyword data to be less than 10% for most websites. It’s important to keep track of that information, so you can determine whether the figure increases or decreases over time.

Meanwhile, you can continue relying on the keyword data provided by Bing and Yahoo, which probably account for around 10-20% of your organic search referrals. You can also access existing Google data from users not logged into their Google accounts and users clicking on your paid search ads, if you’re an AdWords customer. Although it’s not complete, such data will prove invaluable when you’re deciding which keywords to target and figuring out how to optimize your site’s conversion rates.

The popularity of the mobile web is exploding. In fact, it has been estimated that there will be more than 1.7 billion mobile web users by 2013. Don’t want to be left behind and miss out on sales? Then building a mobile-friendly version of your site is an absolute must.

Google has a separate index for mobile content and it is far smaller than Google’s index for standard websites. Therefore, competition in mobile SEO is minimal right now, but that’s sure to change once more people build mobile versions of their websites. To get your mobile website to rank well in Google’s mobile index while it’s still easy to do so, start building a presence on the mobile web right away. Below are some tips for optimizing your website for mobile users.

Simplify

Mobile devices have a restricted amount of screen space, so it’s essential to prioritize content. Eliminate all non-essential content and make it easy for your site visitors to find their way around. Remember: mobile users have even shorter attention spans than desktop users because they’re typically on the move when they access the web. With that in mind, design a simple website that focuses on just a few key areas of your standard site that would be of interest to mobile users, such as your contact page and a site search feature.

Resize Images

Avoid using heavy, desktop-sized images on your mobile website. Small images are appropriate for the small screens of mobile devices. Resize images on the web server, so they take less time to load on mobile devices.

Use Automatic Mobile Device Detection

Rather than communicating to users that you have a separate mobile website and asking them to visit that site, use automatic mobile device detection so that the mobile version of you website is automatically triggered when people access it from a mobile device. One of the most reliable automatic mobile device detection tools is User Agent detection.

Make It Easy for Users to Visit the Standard Version of Your Website

While it’s a good idea to take mobile users directly to the mobile version of your website, make it easy for them to visit the standard version of your site because they might not find all of the information or features they’re looking for on the mobile version of your site. You can put a footer link on every page of your website that leads to your “Full Site,” so users can easily go there when they need to.

Incorporate Brand Elements of Your Standard Website

Although your mobile website should be far simpler than your standard website, it’s still important to incorporate brand elements of your standard website to create a consistent, familiar user experience. For example, you can use the same color palette and iconography on your mobile website that you use on your standard website.

Don’t Use Flash or Java

Many phones do not support Java and Apple products do not support Flash, so avoid using Flash or Java on your site. Otherwise, a good portion of smartphone users will be unable to access your site’s content.

The mobile web is new to many website owners, so the process of designing a mobile compatible website might seem overwhelming at first. But if you follow the simple rules outlined above and keep mobile users’ needs at the forefront of your mind, you’re sure to succeed in building a user-friendly mobile website that maximizes traffic and sales.

In SEO, there are just as many myths and misconceptions that can damage your rankings as there are effective techniques that can propel your site to the top of the search engines. Because the search engines’ algorithms are kept secret from the general public, it’s common for misconceptions to flourish. One inaccurate blog post, forum post, or article is enough to spread a damaging SEO myth. Below are 5 of the most common myths in the industry and the truth behind them.

1. Toolbar Pagerank is important

Toolbar Pagerank is the Pagerank that appears in the Google Toolbar. Note that Toolbar Pagerank is not the same as a site’s internal Pagerank that Google uses in its algorithm. In the early days of SEO, the higher your Toolbar Pagerank was, the more valuable the search engines considered your site. Therefore, when webmasters built links, they only sought links from sites that had a Toolbar Pagerank of 4 or higher. Many people continue to follow this link-building strategy, even though it’s been proven that the Toolbar Pagerank no longer plays a role in a site’s rankings.

2. The META keywords tag affects your rankings

The META keywords tag will not help your rankings. It won’t do your site any harm, either, but creating them is just a waste of valuable time. Google publicly announced years ago that they were no longer using the META keywords tag to rank websites. Don’t confuse the META keywords tag with the META description tag, however. While the latter isn’t used to determine rankings, it is used as a snippet for your site in the search results, so it can help to increase your site’s click-through rates.

3. You have to submit your site to the search engines on a regular basis

Many unethical SEO firms mislead their clients by charging them to submit their sites to search engines multiple times. In reality, once your site is launched, you only need to submit it to the search engines once and doing so is free. There’s no need to pay an SEO company a hefty fee to do it for you! In fact, you don’t have to do it at all because the search engines will find and index your site on their own, as long as it gets a few links and visitors.

4. Nofollow backlinks are worthless

Backlinks from sites that use the “nofollow” tag are widely considered to be worthless, but many SEO professionals are starting to believe that the search engines consider nofollow links in their algorithms to some extent. Many authoritative sites, such as Wikipedia and Digg, use nofollow links. And links from those sites are still highly regarded. Furthermore, regardless of whether a link is nofollow, it will still refer visitors to your site. Even traffic you attract via nofollow links is valuable because those visitors may eventually become your customers.

5. You shouldn’t link to other sites on your site because it’ll decrease your rankings

Many webmasters try to keep outgoing links on their sites to a minimum because they believe that linking out will cause their own sites’ rankings to decrease. The truth is that linking out to other sites will not decrease your rankings. In fact, if you do it right, linking out to other sites could even improve your rankings. Google, the world’s most popular search engine, aims to highly rank sites that offer the best possible user experience. And linking out to relevant, useful content on other websites improves your site’s user experience. On the other hand, Google considers it unnatural for sites to have no outgoing links whatsoever. The only outgoing links that may hurt your site’s rankings are links that point to spammy, irrelevant, or malicious sites.

Attention online retailers: it might seem too early to begin preparing your website for the holidays, but it’s important to keep in mind that people start their holiday shopping online sooner than they do at brick-and-mortar stores because of the time it takes to receive items in the mail. Even if they don’t actually plan to buy something online, people like to use the internet to compare prices, read reviews, and look for special deals and promotions. You can monetize this kind of behavior if you present these prospects with the right content at the right time.

Now is a great time to start improving your site’s SEO, so it attracts more natural search traffic when the holidays finally roll around. Outlined here are 7 essential holiday SEO tips that will help you maximize sales this upcoming holiday season.

1. Promote specific items as good holiday gifts

Many prospects use the search engines to get ideas about what gifts to give to their friends and loved ones. Increase the chances that your products will show up when people search for gift ideas by describing each of your products as good gifts for men, women, children, moms, dads, travelers, etc. in tags and descriptions.

2. Offer a free shipping deal for holiday shoppers

Entice potential customers by offering them free shipping on all orders. Many shoppers search online for retailers that offer free shipping, so optimizing your site for the keyword, “free shipping,” will help you generate more traffic and sales.

3. Write about gift ideas on your blog

Publish gift idea lists on your blog that promote your products, so you can help your customers select appropriate gifts while encouraging them to purchase something from your store. Articles with titles like, “Top 10 Gifts for Her in 2011” and “5 Gifts for the Traveler in the Your Life” tend to get a lot of traction in social media.

4. Ask prominent bloggers to review your holiday gift items

Get valuable backlinks and promote your products to potential buyers by requesting prominent bloggers to review your holiday gift items.

5. Refresh your XML sitemap

If you’re like many online retailers, you probably carry certain items only during the holidays. Make sure that those holiday gift items are included in your XML sitemap by refreshing it. Another option would be to set up a special holiday XML sitemap.

6. Optimize images

An oft-overlooked SEO technique is to optimize website images by adding captions and alt text to them. If you optimize your images for relevant keywords, you may be able to attract more traffic and sales via image search since many people search for pictures of the products they’re thinking of purchasing.

7. Improve your website’s mobile shopping experience

Mobile commerce is expanding significantly. In 2010, there was a 300% increase in shopping-related searches during the holiday season. To take advantage of mobile commerce’s growth, optimize your website for mobile search and create a mobile version of your ecommerce site.

An increasing number of local business owners understand that they need search engine optimization (SEO) to succeed online. And it doesn’t take much research about SEO to figure out that the success of any SEO campaign depends upon its link-building strategy.

The challenge of link-building is that it is a long-term process that requires both manpower and financial resources. Since most small, local businesses have limited marketing budgets, they must develop ongoing link-building campaigns that require a minimal investment. Here are 5 link-building tips that small, local businesses can use to propel their websites to the top of the search engines.

1. Get listed in local directories

Although directory links are nowhere near as valuable as they used to be in SEO, they still dominate local rankings. The first place to start looking for links is on local directories. To find these local directories, search for your city’s name plus terms like “business directory,” “web directory,” and “local business links.” Big-name local business directories where you can have your business listed include Yelp, Google Places, YellowPages.com, and MerchantCircle. Other websites where you can get your company’s site listed include the local Chamber of Commerce website, business association websites, and company directories, like Manta.com.

2. Offer Online Coupons

Offer online coupons on local deals websites, so you can get featured on those sites and generate tons of traffic and links. In addition to getting a link from the deals site, you’re also likely to attract links from users of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, which will give your site even more link juice.

3. Distribute Online Press Releases

Whenever anything press-worthy is going on in your business, such as the launch of new products and services, a new hire, or a big project, announce the news to the local company by writing and distributing a press release. Email the press release to local media outlets and groups who might be interested in the news, so you can earn additional links.

4. Submit Content to Local and National Blogs

Find relevant blogs at both the local and national level and submit guest posts to them that include a link back to your website. Your time may be better spent writing and submitting content to other blogs rather than maintaining your own blog because of the valuable links you can build doing the former.

5. Organize Contests

Organize a contest with a prize for the winner at least once a year, so you can spread the word about your business and attract a slew of links from bloggers and social media users. Don’t give a prize away that’s irrelevant to your business, however. For the best results, give away your own products or services as prizes, so you aren’t just attracting freebie-seekers who have absolutely no interest in your business.

The effort you put into link-building will pay off in a big way, but it could take as long as 6-12 months to see the fruits of your labor. As long as you set some time aside each month to write, network, distribute content, and strategize, your site is sure to accumulate valuable links and achieve greater search engine visibility.

Creating and distributing linkbait is a popular link-building technique. When done correctly, linkbait can build your authority, attract relevant links, and boost your online visibility. Although creating linkbait can boost your online presence, it can also damage your brand if you aren’t careful. Outlined here are some of the most common linkbait mistakes and how to fix them.

Creating Linkbait without a Promotional Plan

Don’t wait till after you’re done creating linkbait to come up with a promotional plan because without a solid strategy in place, there’s a good chance your linkbait will fall flat quickly. Prior to creating linkbait, approach some influential figures in your industry to see what they think about your concept. If people dig the idea and you’re able to secure around five promising links, start working on your linkbait.

Using Misleading Headlines

One common mistake that people make when creating headlines for their linkbait is that they create catchy headlines just to grab people’s attention, but the headlines are only loosely related to the topic at hand. Don’t mislead your audience because if your linkbait doesn’t deliver on the promise made in your headline, people will be disappointed and won’t share it. It’s possible to write a compelling headline without lying.

Being Controversial Just for the Sake of Being Controversial

You can’t deny the fact that controversial content makes good linkbait, but there’s a thin line between compelling, controversial content and empty rants. If you want to create a controversial piece that helps you build your brand, reputation, and authority, you need to make sure your argument is valuable and thought-provoking. Otherwise, your linkbait attempt could end up hurting your brand rather than helping it.

Not Understanding the Social Media Landscape

In order for linkbait to spread, it has to do well in social media. So, unless you’re deeply familiar with the social networks where you plan to share your content, consult with an expert. The preferences and behaviors of social media audiences vary widely from one social network to the next. For example, some types of linkbait may do exceptionally well on Twitter, yet fail miserably on Digg. Study the type of content that does well with your audience and then determine which social media networks your audience use the most, so you can create linkbait that’s right on the mark.

Using Unreliable Hosting

Make sure that your website’s hosting service is reliable, so your server doesn’t crash if your linkbait is successful and your site receives tons of traffic. Remember: all of the effort you put into creating and promoting your linkbait will go down the drain if your server crashes. A good hosting service is well worth the investment.

Creating Irrelevant Linkbait

Whenever you create linkbait, make sure that it’s relevant to your industry and your audience’s needs and interests. A silly video about cats may spread like wildfire and attract a slew of links, but it won’t help you grow your online presence if it isn’t relevant to your business.

One of the things people tend to struggle with when starting out in SEO is building links. There are several ways to build high-quality links to your website, but one of the most effective ways to do so, especially if you’re a beginner, is through guest posting. But there’s a whole lot more to guest posting than finding blogs that you like and submitting articles to them. In order to devise an effective guest posting strategy, you need to outline the goals you hope to achieve, define the purpose of each and every blog post you submit, and measure the results of your guest posting campaigns.

Define Your Target Audience

Who buys your products/services? What types of blogs do those people read? Find the most popular blogs that your target audience reads and submit posts to them.

Secure Guest Posting Opportunities

Once you decide which blogs you want to target, find out if they accept guest posts. If there are no clear instructions for guest writers on their websites, email them to ask if they accept guest posts. Prior to contacting blogs to pitch guest posts, make sure that you have some writing samples to show them, as well as a tentative title and description of the article you’d like to submit. Keep in mind that some bloggers don’t accept pitches and require you to submit completed posts for their consideration. Just make sure to follow each blogger’s instructions carefully because not following directions when submitting a guest post is a surefire way to get your work rejected.

Steer Clear of Sales Talk

It’s common for people who are new to guest posting to assume that they can submit thinly-veiled sales pitches as guest posts. But if you want your articles to get accepted and achieve optimal results once published, you need to remember that the point of your articles is not to sell your products/services, but to provide solutions to your readers. Make an effort to write the most helpful posts possible for your target audience. Sure, you want to get your business mentioned and get a link back to your site, but the article itself should educate readers. Besides, if you position yourself as a knowledgeable, helpful authority, people who read your article are far more likely to click on your link. On the other hand, if you try to sell, sell, sell in your guest articles, you will turn off readers and make them stop reading.

Measure the Results of Your Guest Posting Campaigns

Whatever it is you hope to achieve through guest posting, make sure you measure the results of your campaign. Building links is obviously one of the most important benefits that come with guest posting, but guest posts can also help you in several other ways, such as by building your authority, driving traffic to your website, attracting new blog subscribers, and growing your audience on social media networks.

Running out of Blogs to Post on? Find Blogs about Indirectly Related Topics

If your company sells shoes and you run out of shoe blogs to submit guest posts to, don’t fret. You can find many new blogs to submit guest articles to if you consider blogs about indirectly related topics. For example, you can write articles about shoes for fashion blogs, mommy blogs, sports blogs, or travel blogs. Obviously, your writing voice and angle will be different, depending on which type of site you write for.

Keyword research is one of the most important aspects of SEO, yet many people fail to do it properly. Making keyword research mistakes could cost you money because not all traffic leads to sales. In order to drive more profitable traffic to your site, avoid the following 7 blunders.

1. Targeting keywords people don’t use

This sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised to learn how many companies out there brainstorm to come up with keywords without determining whether people actually search for those terms. For example, some businesses use insider jargon as keywords. While these terms might be familiar to someone working in the industry, they are probably foreign to searchers, who tend to use different terminology. If you hire an SEO company to do your keyword research, make sure that they’re not targeting obscure, easy-to-rank-for keywords on purpose, just so they can guarantee rankings.

2. Targeting only high-competition keywords

For many business owners, targeting only high-competition keywords is simply unrealistic because there’s a good chance that they won’t be able to rank their sites for those keywords. Take your site’s authority and age into consideration when choosing keywords because targeting keywords you can’t rank for is a waste of time and money.

3. Not considering user intent

A keyword reveals a lot about user intent. Why did the user enter that particular phrase? What do they want? When doing keyword research, try to get inside the minds of users to figure out exactly what it is they want when they are using certain keywords. For example, a keyword that includes the word, “buy,” is more likely to convert into sales. On the other hand, a keyword that includes the word, “free,” probably won’t convert to sales because the searcher’s intent is to find something free of charge — not actually purchase something.

4. Selecting overly broad keywords

Ranking for overly broad keywords is pointless because broad keywords are far less likely to bring you targeted traffic and sales. For example, it’s better to rank for a specific keyword phrase, such as, “website development firm Canton, Ohio,” than a general phrase like, “website development.”

5. Failing to review keywords on an annual basis

Keyword research isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it process – it’s an ongoing endeavor. Consumer search behavior evolves over time, so reviewing your keywords on an annual basis is essential. During a keyword review, you can determine which keywords are performing poorly and need to be eliminated, as well as which keywords are performing well and show opportunities for growth.

6. Ignoring conversion rates

High levels of traffic don’t matter to your business’s website if that traffic doesn’t convert into sales. Ranking for certain, high-profile keywords might bring you droves of traffic, but financially speaking, your business would be far better off if you targeted keywords that actually translate to sales, even if they aren’t as glamorous as the former.

7. Rushing the keyword research process

Good keyword research, as with anything that’s worth doing, takes time. Rushing the keyword selection process could cost you money in the long run. Taking the time to select relevant, high traffic/low competition keywords that demonstrate purchase intent will bring you a high return on investment (ROI).

PageRank is an algorithm that Google uses to measure how reputable a website is. A site’s PageRank depends on the quality and quantity of its incoming links, as well as on the quantity of outgoing links it has per page. PageRank values range from 0-10.

In the early years of SEO, PageRank was one of the most important ranking signals, so many webmasters tried to manipulate their sites’ PageRank by building links organically or paying for links from sites with a high PageRank. Nowadays, SEOs are divided when it comes to the topic of PageRank. Some SEOs still believe that PageRank is important, while others have stopped caring about it.

According to Google’s Matt Cutts, PageRank is still important, but it is only one out of 200 signals that Google uses to rank websites. So, while PageRank matters, webmasters should probably focus their energies on increasing relevant traffic to their websites rather than on boosting their websites’ PR.

But that doesn’t mean you should stop caring about PageRank altogether. Your website’s PageRank affects the number of pages on your website that get indexed by Google. So, in order to increase the number of pages of your website that are indexed by Google, you need to increase your site’s PageRank. Furthermore, to ensure that the most important pages of your site are being indexed by Google, it’s necessary to build high-value links that point specifically to those pages. High-value links are links that hail from relevant, high authority websites.

A website’s PageRank determines how much value its outbound links provide to other sites. Generally speaking, links from a PR8 site are more valuable than links from a PR1 site. However, links from high PR websites don’t matter if they aren’t from relevant websites, or if the websites link to several irrelevant websites from the same page.

For example, if you have a website that sells light bulbs and you get a link from a PR8 site that sells tables and links to several other irrelevant websites from the same page, you won’t get much value from that link, despite the high PageRank of the site. You’d be better off getting links from sites with a lower PageRank but that are relevant to your website. It’s important to note that few websites have a PageRank above 5 besides governmental websites, educational websites, or websites from large, famous companies.

Rankings, Traffic, and Conversion Rates Are More Important Than PageRank

The general consensus among online marketers is that PageRank doesn’t affect rankings directly because a PR0 website could outrank a PR5 website in some instances. It wouldn’t hurt to monitor your website’s PR, but it’s far from being the most important metric to pay attention to when it comes to your online presence.

When you build links to your site, make an effort to get links from high PR sites, but only if they’re relevant and don’t contain several other outbound links. The bottom line is that you shouldn’t obsess over PageRank, but you shouldn’t ignore it, either. PageRank is important because it helps you determine whether your link-building efforts are on the right track, but in the end, your site’s traffic levels, sales, and conversion rates are what matter most.

All the SEO in the world won’t help your website if it doesn’t have credibility. Websites that lack credibility have difficulty converting browsers into buyers because it’s impossible sell to people who don’t trust you. In order for your website’s SEO campaign to be effective in the long run, you need to focus on building a high quality internet presence that both search engines and people trust. Here are 10 tips for doing so.

1. Write high quality content

If writers in India are churning out articles for your website at $3 a page, visitors to your site aren’t going to think it’s credible. Bad grammar, bad spelling, and blatant misinformation will hurt your reputation and make people distrust your brand. Focus on quality over quantity and hire a professional writer to produce compelling content for your site. Content creation isn’t an expense – it’s an investment.

2. Include your physical address

Search engines, directory editors, and website visitors will look for a physical address on your site to evaluate its credibility.

3. Privacy policy

Along with your physical address and phone number, don’t forget to include a privacy policy in the footer of your website! A privacy policy is a signal of trustworthy website.

4. Build a social media presence

Make an effort to build a following on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. Once you have a decent number of fans and followers, display your social media profiles on your website and invite visitors to connect with you. By displaying your social media profiles, you are showing potential buyers that there are real people behind your brand and that others listen to what you have to say.

5. Display the number of RSS feed subscribers you have

People are more likely to trust you if you have a large following. So, if your website has a blog and you develop a healthy base of RSS feed subscribers, display your subscriber count in a prominent area of your website.

6. State your qualifications

Do you have a degree or certification in your field? State all relevant qualifications that you have in your “About” page. In addition, if you’re a member of a relevant organization or club, mention it in your bio.

7. Limit advertisements

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make a buck or two with ads on your website, but not at the expense of your website visitors’ trust. Avoid plastering your website with ads. Feature only a limited number of quality ads that are highly relevant to your industry.

8. Have your website designed by a professional

Nothing screams “amateur” more than a generic template website. If you want your website to look trustworthy and reputable, have a professional customize its design for you.

9. Include a photo of yourself

Get a professional photo taken of yourself and your employees to increase the credibility of your site. People are more likely to trust your site if they know what the people behind it look like.

10. Update your website on a regular basis

Update your website’s content on a regular basis to show visitors that you stay on top of what’s happening in your industry. Static websites don’t seem as credible as dynamic websites because they look abandoned.

Many a marketer claims that distributing press releases online is a great way to snag the mainstream media’s attention and attract publicity, but the truth is that today’s press releases serve a far different purpose. Hoping that a mainstream media outlet will cover your company’s press release is frankly a waste of time. If the media does use it, which is unlikely, they’ll probably shorten it or refer to it in a bigger story. But that doesn’t mean that you should ditch the idea of distributing press releases online. In fact, press release marketing has numerous benefits for your business’s brand and online presence.

The #1 Benefit of Distributing Press Releases Online

Today, the number one benefit of distributing online press releases is getting search engine visibility. If your press release gets picked up by the media, that’s an added bonus, but don’t expect it to happen. If you optimize your press releases for the search engines, your press release will get picked up, you’ll drive more traffic to your website, and you’ll generate several valuable backlinks. Furthermore, potential customers searching for the types of products/services you offer are more likely to find out about your company if you distribute press releases frequently and spread the word about what you do.

On a typical business day in the US, more than 2,000 press releases are distributed to the five biggest wire services. This means that you need to make an effort to write a press release that stands out and optimize it for the search engines. The first and most important thing to remember is to write press releases with your target audience in mind. So, while it’s important to make your press releases SEO-friendly, don’t forget that you’re ultimately writing for humans. Here are some other tips that will help you write successful press releases that spread.

Optimize Your Press Releases for 1-2 Target Keywords

Conduct keyword research to determine which words and phrases your potential customers are using to search for your products/services online. Then, optimize each one of your press releases for 1-2 target keywords. For maximum effect, incorporate the keyword(s) into your press release’s headline, sub-head, and opening sentence. In addition, you can link to a relevant page of your website in the first paragraph of your press release using keyword anchor text. Just keep in mind that not all websites that pick up your press release will include the hyperlink, so include the full URL of your website at the end of the piece to ensure that people can find your website no matter what.

Write Something Newsworthy

One major problem with online press releases is that they’re often written about topics that aren’t newsworthy. Distributing press releases that aren’t newsworthy is a waste of time and space. Nobody will read it, so why bother? If you want your press releases to get results, write them about something people actually care about and make it about them, not you. If you’re writing your press release about a topic that’s less-than-exciting, at the very least use an interesting angle that makes it worth reading.

Make Sure It’s Distributed through Google News and Yahoo! News

Press release distribution services can cost anywhere from $0 to $500. Just remember to select a distribution service that will submit your press release to Google News and Yahoo! News, both of which get significant coverage and traffic. Keep track of stats offered by the wire service, so you can evaluate the performance of your press releases.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the most effective methods for attracting targeted traffic to your website and generating more leads online. While DIY SEO is a possibility, most business owners don’t have the time to learn the intricacies of SEO and apply it to their own websites, so they hire experts to get the job done.

But as SEO has grown, so has the number of bad SEO companies out there that pretend to know what they’re doing and scam unknowing business owners out of thousands of dollars. Here are signs that an SEO company should send you running for the hills.

Guarantees a #1 Ranking

While an SEO company *might* be able to get you a #1 ranking for your target keyword, there’s no way they can guarantee it. SEO companies can influence SEO rankings, but they cannot control them. It’s ultimately up to the search engines themselves.

Promises to Post Many Comments on Different Blogs

Blog commenting, when done properly, can increase traffic to your website and help you build links back to your site. The keyword here is, “properly.” Some SEO firms will tell you that they’re going to post a bunch of comments on blogs to drive more traffic to your site, but what they really mean is that they’re going to spam blogs. And comment spam won’t drive traffic to your website – it’ll get stuck in spam folders and possibly get you in a pickle.

Writes You from an Anonymous Gmail Account

If somebody from an SEO company emails you out of the blue from an anonymous Gmail account, telling you how much they can improve your website’s search engine rankings, beware. It either means they don’t have a website or they don’t want you to see their website for a reason that surely can’t be good.

Uses Too Much Jargon

When you talk to the SEO company, do you understand what they’re saying or do you hear nothing but jargon? SEO is complicated, but it’s not rocket science. With some thought and effort, an SEO professional should be able to explain SEO concepts to you in layman’s terms so you can understand them. Any reputable SEO company will want you to understand exactly what they’re doing with your website.

Doesn’t Have Any References

Avoid SEO companies that cannot provide you with any references. It’s essential to talk with previous clients in order to determine whether a particular SEO company would be a good fit for your needs.

Only Does On-Site SEO

On-site optimization is an important aspect of SEO, but alone, it’s not going to help your website achieve good rankings. Off-site SEO, which refers to link-building, is essential to a successful SEO campaign. So, if an SEO company tells you that link-building is unethical and they only do on-site optimization, pack your bags and look elsewhere.

Claims They’ll Submit Your Site to Thousands of Directories

Directory submission is still an effective link-building strategy, but only if you submit your site to high quality directories that don’t contain any spam and are edited by humans. It’s all about quality, not quantity.

Remember to do plenty of research about the SEO industry before shopping around, so you know exactly what you’re getting into. If you understand the fundamentals of SEO by the time you start looking for a service provider, you’re far less likely to fall for an unscrupulous company’s tricks and far more likely to find a company that has the skills, integrity, and knowledge to help you achieve top website rankings.

The vast majority of consumers now start their search for local business information on the internet. The internet has basically come to replace the Yellow Pages, so it goes without saying that developing an online presence and devising a local search marketing strategy is vital to a local business’s success.

Contrary to popular belief, people don’t just use regular search engines to find local businesses online. They also use social media websites, read reviews on local/social/review sites like Yelp, and search in niche directories to connect with local businesses. So, if you want your local search campaign to be effective, you must develop a presence wherever potential customers could find you or wherever your potential customers hang out. Some areas into which you might need to expand your web presence include:

• Regular search engines
• Local search engines
• Internet yellow pages
• Social networking sites
• Local review websites
• Local directories
• Industry directories
• Online classifieds

Here are some steps you can start taking now to build and enhance your business’s presence in local search:

Claim Local Listings

Claim local listings in Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local, so it’s easier for potential customers to find information about your business and get in touch with you. Claiming your local listings is also important because it prevents your competitors from hijacking your business’s listings.

Enhance Your Listings

You can’t stop at claiming your listings. You also need to enhance your local listings by adding photos, videos, and descriptions to them, as well as encouraging customers to leave reviews. Make sure your listings provide all of the information potential customers would want to know about your business, such as your operating hours, the services you provide, the towns and neighborhoods you serve, etc.

Ensure Consistency

Make sure that the information you submit to all of these different sites and directories is consistent, so you don’t confuse the search engines or potential customers.

Optimize Your Website for Geo-Targeted Terms

Incorporate geo-targeted terms into your website content and page titles. In addition, link to your website using geo-targeted terms when you do internal linking and when you build inbound links.

Add Your Address and Phone Number to Every Page of Your Website

Make sure that your business’s physical address and phone number can be found on every page of your site. Doing this will signal to the search engines that you’re a local business.

Engage with Prospects and Customers Using Social Media

Use social media to interact with your prospects and customers. You can also use social media to hold contests, offer discounts and coupons, and promote special events.

Create a Mobile Version of Your Website

An increasing number of consumers use mobile devices to search for information about local businesses online. Create a mobile version of your site to ensure that your website can be viewed easily by potential customers with smart phones. Also, make an effort to optimize your site for mobile search, so you can attract more local leads via the mobile web.

If you are a business owner with a website and you don’t have a blog already, what are you waiting for? Blogging is an essential piece of the online marketing puzzle and the results of your marketing campaigns will be limited without it. Here are 7 reasons why you need to start a business blog now.

1. Websites with blogs get 55% more visitors

Studies have shown that websites with blogs get more visitors because they are constantly updated with fresh content (which the search engines love) and give users a reason to return to a site on a regular basis. On the other hand, if you have a static website, people won’t have a reason to keep coming back and the search engines won’t have any new content to crawl and index.

2. You can target more keyword phrases if you have a blog

If you have a static website with just a few pages, your ability to target keyword phrases will be limited. With a blog, you’ll be able to target a much larger quantity of keyword phrases on your website and therefore attract more targeted search engine traffic.

3. Helps you get more backlinks

Link-building is one of the most important aspects of SEO. If you want to improve your website’s search engine ranking, you need to get more backlinks. When you post useful blog content and promote it, it helps you attract backlinks from webmasters, bloggers, forum moderators, and other influential members of the online community. These backlinks will not only drive more traffic to your site, they’ll also give your site more link juice and thus improve its rankings.

4. Positions you as an expert

Want to increase your online authority? Then start a blog. Business owners who post compelling, informative content on their blogs are often considered experts in their industry and thus get more attention, links, and business. Remember: people want to buy from professional companies with demonstrated expertise in their field more so than businesses with websites that only feature a sales pitch and nothing more.

5. Fuels your social media marketing efforts

If you’re using social media for business purposes, you absolutely need to have a blog. In order to succeed in social media, you need to create and promote content that gets shared. By building a business blog with helpful content and sharing it to social media users, you can drive more targeted traffic to your site and build trust in your business.

6. Improves communication with customers

If you want your customers to become repeat customers, you need to build a community around your website. Having a blog helps you build a stronger sense of community because your customers feel like they are getting to know you through your writing and can comment on your posts to express their thoughts. These opportunities for interaction improve communication between you and your customers, so they are more inclined to do business with you again.

7. Increases word-of-mouth advertising

A business blog increases word-of-mouth advertising for your business because your prospects and customers are more likely to talk about you and share your website with their friends, family, and professional network if you provide a steady flow of useful content on your blog. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for business owners to stand out in this crowded world, and an expertly written blog may be just what you need to attract your target audience’s attention and set your business apart from the competition.

Are you doing everything in your power to improve your website’s on-page SEO? Many webmasters focus so much on link-building and other off-page SEO strategies that they fail to use basic tactics to their advantage. Needless to say, they’re leaving money on the table.

On-page SEO is far easier to manage than off-page SEO because you don’t have to rely on anybody else to give you links in order to improve your site’s rankings. Here are 8 lesser known on-page SEO ranking factors that are worth paying attention to.

1. The positioning of keywords in your title tags matters

Almost everybody knows that title tags matter in SEO, but merely creating unique title tags for each page of your site and adding your target keywords to them is not sufficient; the position of the keywords in your title tags is crucial! Target keywords should be placed at or towards the beginning of your title tags.

2. Identify your properties across the web

Want to strengthen your online brand and consolidate your identity on the web? When interlinking to sites or social media profiles that belong to you, use the rel=“me” attribute. For example, if you link to your Facebook business page from your website, do this:

<a rel=“me” href=“http://www.facebook.com/JohnDoePlumbingCompany”>Our Facebook Page</a>

By adding this attribute to your links, you are essentially telling the search engines which online properties belong to you. While it’s still not clear what this does for your rankings, it certainly won’t hurt to consolidate your web identity, especially considering how important social media has become in SEO.

3. Contextual internal links are more valuable

A contextual internal link to another page of your site is more valuable than a standalone link. So, when you link to other pages within your site, include the link in a related paragraph.

4. Placement of the <h1> tag

You’ve probably heard that using <h1> tags that include your target keywords is valuable, but to maximize their value, you need to place them in a prominent position on the page. For the best results, use <h1> tags as headings on each page.

5. Position of links on a site

Links that appear in a website’s sidebar or footer have less value than links that appear in the body of a site. When you place important links on your site, make sure they are positioned high in the body of the page.

6. Bolding keywords

Want to give keywords in your web copy more weight? Bold them. When search engine spiders crawl a page of your site, they will try to determine what it is about. If you bold target keywords, search engine spiders will think the page is related to those keywords, which is what you want.

7. Get rid of unnecessary HTML code

When search engine bots crawl your website, what they’re crawling is its HTML code. Get rid of extraneous HTML code on each page of your site because it could negatively impact your rankings.

8. Mix up keyword usage

Rather than using the same keyword phrase over and over in your content, mix it up by incorporating semantically related phrases. For example, if the title of your page is, “Lemon Lawyer Los Angeles,” make the heading tag say something like, “Los Angeles Lemon Attorney” instead. Some effective ways to mix up keyword usage include using synonyms, changing the order of keyword phrases, using singular and plural forms of the same keyword, and adding relevant modifiers.

Google Alerts is a free tool that allows you to monitor Google search results containing predefined keyword phrases. Businesses commonly utilize Google Alerts to find out what’s being said about their brand online. You can choose to have the results emailed to you on a daily or weekly basis.

Not only is Google Alerts an effective reputation management tool, it can also be used to get content development ideas, build relationships, and keep up with important industry news. Google Alerts is also a great addition to your SEO toolbox because it is a wonderful source of potential link-building opportunities. The following are 7 ways to build links to your site with the help of Google Alerts.

1. Find relevant blog posts on which to comment

When you are alerted of blog posts related to your industry and feel that you could contribute to the conversation, leave a comment with a link back to your site.

2. Build relationships

Google Alerts makes it easier for you to find other people in your niche, so it’s an effective relationship-building tool. In the world of internet marketing, relationships = links. By keeping up with who’s who in your industry and forging connections with the webmasters/bloggers you encounter via Google Alerts, you will be able to build valuable, relevant links back to your site.

3. Find relevant references and link to them

Writing an article for your website? Use Google Alerts to find relevant references to link to within your article. The webmasters you link to may even link back to your article if they think it would be beneficial to their readership.

4. Find videos to share with your audience

Use Google Alerts to find relevant videos about your industry. When you find a great video, you can embed it in one of your articles and share it with your audience. Videos are great because they allow you to increase the value of your content quickly and easily. Furthermore, you may even get a link back from the producer of the video.

5. Spy on the competition

Want to know where your competitors are getting mentions and links? Use your competitors’ company names as keywords and keep track of them with Google Alerts, so you can determine where they get their links and whether it would be feasible for you to get links from the same sites.

6. Keep track of sites that are picking up articles and press releases you publish

Whenever you distribute articles or press releases, keep track of their exact titles using Google Alerts. You will be notified anytime one of your articles/press releases is picked up by another site. Contact the sites that pick up your article/press releases and offer to provide them with original content in the future. You can embed a link back to your site within the content.

7. Get links from people who are already talking about you

Keep tabs on your company’s name with Google Alerts so you can find out which sites are mentioning your brand online. Doing this will help you spot the best link building opportunities, since someone who’s already mentioned your brand favorably is more likely to provide you with a link than someone who’s never heard of you before.

Websites are becoming more complex than ever before. Many sites are packed with a wealth of information, so it can be difficult for visitors to find specifically what they seek. Installing a site search box on your website will help visitors find what they’re looking for more quickly.

Not only will internal site search improve the usability of your site, it will also help you improve your website’s conversions and sales by providing you with important marketing data. The following are 5 things you can do with the information gleaned from internal site search analytics.

1. Create New Products and Services

Have you noticed from analyzing internal site search data that many people are searching for a product or service on your site that you don’t yet offer? If so, you may want to consider offering that product or service in order to fill a need. Analyzing internal site search data is a great way to get ideas for new products/services because it allows you to determine exactly what your target audience is looking for when they visit your site.

2. Get Content Creation Ideas

You’ll never have trouble determining what to write about or what type of content to produce for your site if you pay attention to internal site search data. By seeing what topics people are searching for on your site, you can get tons of content creation ideas. From whitepapers and articles to videos and glossaries, there are many different types of content your target audience may be looking for on your site.

3. Discover New Keywords

If you’ve discovered that many people are searching for the same keyword phrases when they use your site’s internal search function, consider targeting those keywords in your search marketing campaign. By incorporating these new keywords into your search marketing campaign, you will be able to better meet your target market’s needs, widen your audience, and increase search engine traffic for keywords you hadn’t considered before.

4. Tweak Your Site Based on Performance Metrics

Track your site’s performance using internal site search and then tweak your site based on your findings. Some key performance metrics that you should keep in mind include the bounce rate of visitors who use internal site search, your site’s conversion rate, the percentage of search query refinement, and the percentage of search exits. Looking at performance metrics across multiple site visitors will give you a good idea about which areas of your site need updating or expansion.

5. Get to Know Your Target Audience More Intimately So You Can Better Serve Them

By analyzing the keyword phrases that people search for when they use the internal site search function on your site, you’ll have a better understanding of the types of people who are using your site. Getting to know your audience more intimately will help you create content that is targeted to their needs.

In sum, don’t overlook the power of internal site search. You can learn a lot more about your site visitors and what they want by tracking their activity using internal site search analytics. If you haven’t already, you can set up Google Site Search at an affordable price. To track Google Site Search through Google Analytics, follow the instructions here.

Choosing the right keywords for your SEO campaign is critical to you website’s success. You could rank #1 for “free web hosting” but it won’t matter much if you sell paid web hosting because people searching for free hosting are obviously not interested in forking out cash for the service.

Think Relevant and Popular

It’s essential to select keywords that are relevant and popular if you want your website to succeed in search. Keywords that are relevant to what you’re selling will help to drive targeted traffic to your site.

The popularity of the keywords you choose is also important, however. Even if you target a highly relevant keyword in your SEO campaign, it won’t bring you the results you seek unless it actually gets searched for on a regular basis. Doing keyword research to determine which keywords are popular is imperative. Generally speaking, keywords that receive around 1,500 to 20,000 searches per month are worth targeting because they get searched for often but are not overly competitive.

Avoid Generic Keywords

Generic keywords may bring you a lot of traffic, but they won’t help you increase sales. For example, if you are a web designer in St. Louis, ranking for “web design” won’t help you as much as ranking for a more specific phrase like, “web designer in St. Louis.” The key is to find keywords that have the greatest likelihood of converting into sales.

Use Geo-Targeted Keywords

Is your business local or regional? If so, be sure to use geo-targeted keywords. Include your city and state name when you’re using a keyword tool to find relevant, geo-targeted keywords in your industry.

Select Keywords That Represent Your Most Profitable Products/Services

What are your best-selling products/services? It makes sense to select keywords that represent those products/services since they are your bread and butter.

Check out the Competition

What keywords are your top-ranking competitors using? Researching the competition is a great way to get keyword ideas. You can check their content, as well as their meta tags, to determine what search terms they’re targeting.

Install Web Analytics

Another great way to find keywords to target is by installing a web analytics program and analyzing incoming traffic. An analytics program like Google Analytics will enable you to determine what terms people are using to find your site, what search engines they’re using, etc.

Target Common Misspellings

When you’re doing keyword research, you’ll notice that many people misspell popular search terms. In some instances, you can significantly increase sales by optimizing the content on your site for common misspellings. For example, rather than optimizing your site for “top dating sites,” you could optimize it for “top dateing sites.”

Use Purchase Modifiers

Use purchase modifiers in your keyword phrases to attract searchers who are in buying mode. Purchase modifiers include “buy,” “compare,” “shop,” and “reviews.” People who search for products/services using purchase modifiers are more likely to click on the “buy now” button when they get to your site since they’re already serious about making a purchase.

Use PPC to Test Keywords for SEO

Prior to targeting keywords in your content for SEO, consider testing them out first by using PPC, or Pay-Per-Click Advertising. You can analyze the results of your PPC campaign to determine which keywords bring your site the most traffic and sales and then use the top-performing keywords in your SEO campaign.

Link development isn’t what it used to be. Back in the early 2000’s, link development consisted mostly of sending out link requests, doing link exchanges, and submitting your website to dozens of directories. The bar has been raised, however, because search engine algorithms have become more complex and search engine users have come more demanding. If you want to keep up with your competitors and ensure that your site continues to rank well in this day and age, keep the following “do’s and don’ts” of link development at the forefront of your mind.

Don’t:
Send out generic link requests to hundreds of webmasters at once. Your emails will simply be marked as spam.
Do:
Find sites about your topic and then determine what information is missing from those sites. Write a personal email to the webmaster, telling him how the information on your site fills that void and how linking to your site would benefit his readers.

Don’t:
Ask webmasters for links using specific keyword anchor text.
Do:
Encourage people to link to your site using whatever anchor text they want to use because it looks more natural and won’t get your site flagged by the search engines.

Don’t:
Submit your site’s URL to hundreds of directories just so you can get backlinks.
Do:
Take the time to find reputable directories to submit to that get significant traffic and page views.

Don’t:
Write short, mediocre articles and submit them to dozens of article directories.
Do:
Find popular sites in your niche that accept guest articles and write useful, lengthy articles for them that include a link back to your site. It will take more time and effort for you to write quality content and find sites that will accept it, but doing so will bring you more traffic and brand recognition in the long run.

Don’t:
Write and submit boring, pointless press releases for the sole purpose of getting backlinks to your site.
Do:
Submit press releases when you truly have something newsworthy to report. If your press release is truly newsworthy and you have it distributed to major news engines, you may be able to get media attention, which will bring you a huge return on investment. At the very least, you’ll be able to generate tons of targeted traffic to your site via news engines.

Don’t:
Leave comments on dozens of forums just for the backlinks in the forum signatures.
Do:
Become an active member on a handful of forums so you can build your reputation and encourage people to actually click on the link in your forum signature.

Don’t:
Buy software or outsource to generate thousands of cheap links on social bookmarking sites, forums, blogs, etc.
Do:
Hire skilled programmers to develop useful tools for your site and hire writers to create quality content so you can attract more links and traffic in the long run.

Don’t:
Create a blog for your site that only contains posts about how great your company is and constantly links to your site.
Do:
Create a blog that features valuable, useful content that attracts link, traffic, and social media attention. Only lead visitors to the commercial area of your site when it’s relevant. Remember: if your blog reads like one big sales pitch, it won’t give you the results you seek.