8/11/09

@What Is Search Engine Optimization?

If you are the owner, operator or manager of an Internet based business enterprise, you likely understand the great importance of drawing customers to your business website. In this regard, you likely have heard of the term search engine optimization. With that said, while you may have heard of search engine optimization, you may not know precisely what is involved in search engine optimization. You may not precisely understand what is involved in search engine optimization.

In point of fact, search engine optimization is one of the most important concepts when it comes to the marketing and promotion of an Internet website or a business existing on the World Wide Web. If you have spent any time at all on the Internet, you understand the fact that different search engines are widely used by people who access the World Wide Web. By typing in a particular set of search terms into a search engine, a person is provided with a listing of website resources that are intended to be related to the terms that were being searched.

Understanding the basics of how a search engine works, you understand that in many instances a potential customer is drawn to your business website as a result of using a search engine service on the Internet and World Wide Web. Of course, people being people, the typical person tends to only pay attention to those websites that come in at the top spaces of a particular search engine search. Consequently, those websites that come in towards the top of a particular search are the same websites that are more frequently visited. (This is a particular important fact for an Internet based business.)

The benefits to having your business listed at the top of various search engine results generally translates into a major increase in traffic and revenue enjoyed by your business operation. Therefore, even if you find that you are spending some money to ensure a higher search engine ranking, the money you spend will be money well spent in the vast majority of cases. Truly, money spent on increasing your search engine ranking, money spent on SEO, oftentimes translates into bein a true investment in the financial future of your business enterprise. Indeed, such an investment may mean the different between your business showing a profit and your business not getting off of the ground. It may mean the difference between success and failure.

@About Search Engine Optimization

Before talking about Search Engine Marketing firms, it is basic to define the meaning of SEO. Search Engine Optimization is presently a part of an online marketing approach, but it is the primary part.

Search engine position and keyword related promotion can be counted for 85% to 95% of general web traffic. Increasing the density of keywords on site is one of the fastest and simplest ways to add chance of webpage's visibility in the search engine results Search engine optimization, or search engine marketing for that issue, is a tool of a business policy. The technique to great SEO outcomes is to make out exactly what goals you want to achieve and with what priorities. People employs search engine optimization techniques to get large nos. of hits for their sites.

Search engine optimization is an issue of learning as much as you can about search technologies, and tempering the acquired knowledge adding a bit of business knowledge of the search engines themselves. Business Intuition helps you to recognize not just what technologies are in position now-a-days but more importantly where to they are heading. The web page, which may be in place 3 months down the line when your web pages lastly pages finally are completely manifested.

Better to explain this reasoning, we will imply to a "keyword" as a vocabulary that your usual web surfer will input in the search box when finding for particular information about a product or service. Advanced technologies are always there to discover, understand and reckon from both sides of the search business. Search Engine - Is a database of web sites which is ranked according to the computerized norm that the programmers consider called an algorithm.

Different search engines verify ranking on their own different factors of importance or application. In the recent past the search engine- Google has been the famous search engine providing the search results for Yahoo and to a lesser extent MSN and AOL. This has changed currently after Yahoo purchased different search engine companies and the inception of its own search engine. The MSN has decided to enter this SEO marketing with their personal search engine algorithm. The searchers write keyword questions into search boxes. Keyword inquiries are provided by the consequences from the databases of the search engines in accordance with the ranking algorithm from whatever search engine they are using. Algorithm is the principle that decides how a web page will position the search results pages of a search engine.

A web site is created solely for search engine ranking function which consists almost entirely of a long list of unrelated links. These types of pages are fined by all kinds search engines. Another necessary thing for search engines is the effect of sand box for filed web sites. Sandbox is allegedly used by one large search engine that is Google as a trial time for new sites. Getting a high PR is kept back for the duration this period.

@Why Search Engine Optimization Is Not Enough

OK. So you've created a nice website with lots of interesting products and information. Now all you need is visitors.

No problem.

This is what online marketers call "getting traffic", and it definitely is a problem. In fact, probably much more of a problem than you realized when you got into this online selling stuff. You probably figured it was just a matter of creating a nice site and waiting for people to discover it. Get listed in a few directories; "submit" your site to a bunch of search engines, and you'll be on your way.

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

**Why it doesn't work that way**

The reason is pretty simple. Most new internet entrepreneurs have no idea how important the big search engines are -- especially Google, MSN, and Yahoo. And they have no idea how these big search engines work. If they did, they would probably tear their beautiful websites apart and start over.

And guess what? That is exactly what most online entrepreneurs end up doing. If they are persistent enough, they eventually learn about the search engines, and they rebuild their sites the way they should have been built in the first place.

**What they think they have learned**

The reason they rebuild their sites is because they learn a little bit about something called "Search Engine Optimization" or "SEO". The mysterious art of SEO starts from the premise that search engines analyze websites in terms of content and subject matter. Their automatic "spiders" look over your pages and use hints within those pages to determine what they are about. If they see lots of words about "golden retrievers" on a particular page, then they assume that page is about "golden retrievers". These are known as "keywords" -- the words that indicate what your content is about.

SEO takes this fairly obvious fact and says, "Since the search engines are going to draw conclusions about the subject matter of your pages based on keywords, then you should make sure they see the correct ones." In fact, there are all kinds of little SEO techniques that try to exploit the way spiders draw conclusions about your pages.

**Why this is not enough**

Unfortunately, no matter how much SEO you do, it is still not enough to ensure you a high ranking in searches for your most important keywords. Especially if you are chasing popular keywords like most of us are. For instance, it really doesn't matter how much "optimization" you do for a keyword like "Real Estate", since you will be competing for search engine results with literally millions of other pages which are also optimized for that term. Why should they choose your humble little page?

The fact is, they don't choose yours. And the reason is pretty simple.Your page is just not important enough to rank a high position for a term like "Real Estate". You have to do something to give it some importance.

**Making your pages "important"**

The most effective way to make your pages "important" in the eyes of the search engines, is to get other sites to link to yours. When the search engines see a link pointing from an outside site to a page on your site, they assume this means your page is important enough to be considered a resource worth looking at. The more links you have pointing at your page, the more important your page is considered and the higher it will rank when people search for the type of content your page is about.

It is also important to understand that not all links are considered equally valuable by the search engines. The most valuable links come from other important sites that share your area of interest. For instance, if yours is a Real Estate site, then the most valuable links are from other real estate sites that have already achieved some importance in the eyes of the search engines.

To put this all in "link strategy" terms:

The best way to enhance the importance of your web pages in the eyes of the search engines, is by getting as many links as possible from relevant sites that are considered authoritative in your area of interest.
By: Rick Hendershot

@Search Engine Optimization And Search Marketing For Start Ups

Startup Companies often have big dreams and a small budget. Using pay per click (PPC) advertising like Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN adCenter alone to draw traffic may not be financially feasible. A successful startup should opt for a more balanced, frugal approach to getting traffic to their landing pages; one which incorporates generic search result traffic. Using a blend of limited PPC advertising and content optimization can yield the best return on an SEO investment.

Strategy One for Startup Companies: Split Tests & Pay Per Click
Whenever you conduct a pay per click campaign you should always run split tests to see which ads are most effective. An A - B split test is the most simple, and practical method. Simply create two ads for the same keywords and run both ads in conjunction. Which ever ad has a higher score, try and determine why. Discontinue the less successful ad and create another ad and accentuate the features of the better selling ad. Iterate this split testing process to come up with the best ads. Often, simply looking at the top ads is a great way to get started--learn what you can from the best!

Another short note when conducting a pay per click management campaign; often it is wise to only bid on ads on the Google or Yahoo! search results, and not their content networks. Google's content network ads are not as visible and will hurt your ad's quality score due to the lower click thru rate the ads will have on the content networks.

Strategy Two for Startup Companies: Keyword Optimization
Purchasing a software program like AdWords Analyzer or getting a membership at WordTracker.com is essential to effective search engine optimization. The goal with using these programs is to find relevant search phrases that are are searched heavily but without much competition. Once these search phrases are detected, you can start optimizing your page's content for these keywords.

Links have always been the staple of search engine page rank algorithms. Google currently uses link text to determine page relevancy; that is, the words the anchor tags are placed around that link to your site help Google determine what keywords are relevant in relation to your site's content. If I linked to your site with the link text "Polish Sausage" Google will think have a clue that your site is relevant to sausage sales. The question then becomes, "How do I get the right links pointing to my site with the right keywords in the linked text?" That might be difficult if you didn't do it yourself; thus you must do it yourself.

You'll want to find sites with a high page rank to post your links on; message boards will not do. Decent Search Engine Marketing will require you to sign up for sites like Associated Content, Squidoo, and eZine Articles. Create your own content and have link text that is keyword specific to the various pages you are linking to. Watch, you rankings will improve and you'll make money posting content to some of these sites as well. For some complete search engine marketing advice, take a look at the following search engine marketing blog

In conclusion, incorporating a blend of pay per click and organic search engine optimization will dramatically improve your page rank and your landing page scores. Google, and the rest of the engines are getting smarter; keyword optimization is just the tip of the iceberg! If your money low, time high, this balanced attack strategy can be an incredibly effective course of action with a great return on your investment.