6 Ways to Improve your Google Page Rank
How do you improve your Google page rank? It’s no secret that a high Google page rank (PR) is good for your website. If your site is picked up by search engines then it will generate more traffic. After all that is the main goal. Most people don’t go beyond the first search page, if your site is on subsequent pages it’s as good as not existing. In order to give your site the best chance to rank high you must research search engine optimization strategies.
Although there are many methods to get your site ranking #1 on Google, there is no exact answer. Below are several methods to help achieve success.
1. Sign up to Google Webmaster Tools and discover your current page rank, any errors that have been picked up and how the search engine view your site.
2. Do your keyword research (I can’t say it enough) and keyword analysis. Ensure that your website content contains adequate keywords but don’t over do it. No more than 5% is about right. If you get carried away and fill your content with the same keywords you are in danger of being banned on Google. Keep the content unique and fresh and let Google see the real content.
3. Use Google’s Sitemap feature to submit a map of your site, again this in found at Google Webmaster Tools. Also ensure there is a sitemap on your site or get software that can generate one.
4. Build those links! Google rewards the popular. If you have lots of links there is a chance you will get higher. The links should be relevant though to your industry or niche and not just link farms.
5. Improve your Google page rank by posting articles to article banks, comment on other blogs and chatting on forums. Leave your URL signature when you do visit and comment. Put yourself out there, it’s ok to ask for a link, you never know, someone may take you up on the offer.
6. Look at how many links you have to other pages on your site from the homepage. This is known as cross-linking. The more pages that are ranked high the better. I feel like a broken record, keep it unique and relevant.
These are some ideas to achieve PR success, of course there are many more and as Google and other search engines evolve, new practices will emerge. A little effort and patience will pay off in the long term if you maintain the work and remain positive.
The Importance of Back Links
How important are back links? Answer: Very. They are as important as generating traffic. Links improve search engine rankings, rate your popularity and drive more traffic to your site. There are many methods to explore such as article writing, blogging, social metworking and submitting to directoried. Use as many or as few as you need to but remain patient, these links don’t come overnight.
Keywords are key! For example a website that sells parts for classic cars would benefit from having backlinks from other car websites rather than ones on computers or gardening. Also the links should be built over time and not generated by linking software or link farms.
Directory submissions are a well known way to get links. Although this is easy enough, search engines consider most to be of no quality and the links are discounted. Those of quality usually require a fee for reviewing and inserting your site in the directory. By reviewing the site first they can ascertain the quality of your website and ensure it meets keywords and the content is consistent with their policies. People don’t work for nothing so if you need reviewers, they cost money, which is where the fee goes.
Purchasing links is widely found, which can be very tempting, especially when you are just starting out and are desperate for those links. Compared to directory submissions that are paid for review, these are a definate inclusion in their site. Google and the other search engines tend to look down on this practice and will disregard the links. Some argue that at least it’s a guaranteed link whereas if it’s up for review it could be refused and you’re back at square one anyway.
Submitting articles to article banks can be a powerful way to build some links. If your website is about animal shelters then write articles and submit them to article directories that cover animal topics. The only downside is that the original article covers the circuit and as a result hundreds of copies are reachable on mnay websites and the links have little effect.
Building backlinks of QUALITY have a considerable effect on your search engine optimisation and should be included in your stratgy. Hopefully the subject regarding the importance of backlinks is a little clearer and help gain results in your online efforts.
YouTube and Google have plenty of videos on the subject, this one is a little musical, very basic presentation but it’s really simple and clear:
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Finding your niche market
If you found expats that have moved to your town are longing for a taste of home, could you sell them a sample of that? The foreigner away from home is a niche market waiting to be tapped into. By cornering this market you become an expert in your area and can charge accordingly. Although it can be timely, focussing on a niche can mean better returns on investment.
Affiliate marketers tend to harness niche markets as they can reach smaller more relevant market segments, ensuring that income keeps coming. This method is then replicated across many other niche sites or blogs until the required income level is obtained.
To begin with, identify the people whom you meet their needs. If need be you can tailor your product/service to meet their terms. For example, my aunt runs a hair salon near a school. She offers discounted haircuts to under 16’s. This encourages the parents to go to this salon above another. She also runs free hair modelling evenings for mums and kids with free snacks and operates a Saturday Hair School for 7-16 year olds to take part in cutting and styling hair. She also puts up noticeboards with local classifieds and items for sale which are all relevant to the mums and kids that go in the salon.
Even though there may be salons closer to the parents, they are more likely to go here because of the perks and the attention to detail. Study the niche market and focus carefully for the results.She can’t become ambitious though. Everyone has a price that they won’t go beyond. If you want repeat business, price the product right. Also don’t exclude anyone in the niche market or in the market altogether. Will granny feel having her blue rinse with lots of kids running under her feet?
Articles: the new marketing tool
You are no-body unless you have a website. Or at least it seems as though everyone has a website or at least a blog. They are being advertised through PPC, social networking sites and bloggin directories. Compared to print advertising, online methods are usually less effort and more cost effective as they can reach the exact niche market that you require. Although article writing is mostly found in magazine journalism it is becoming a must have for blogs. Articles can add frequent, relevant and interesting material to a blog ensuring it sits well with search engine placement, (providing you get the links right, but that’s a different post). There are many different ways to obtain the articles, a few ideas are mentioned here.
You can write articles yourself. Work out the relevant topics and ensure your keywords are well placed to enable good search engine listings. It should be an article that is of interest to your visitors (seems obvious doesn’t it?) and relevant. An antique dealer article on where to find an authentic Ming vase is not well placed on a blog about sharing the latest MP3 tunes. Although keywords need to be seen they shouldn’t take over the writing, leaving it in danger of being false and labelled as spam. Don’t underestimate the site visitor, and they are until they buy something. They want honest writing, not duplicates or fake information that leads them to become bored and lose interest. As well as a relevant article, the title must be catchy and relevant. Otherwise they will not even pass the title page.
The second way is to get someone else to write them such as freelance writers or article writing services. These charge by the post or per 100 words. Custom articles can range from approx .50c to $14 depending on whether it is original content or from an article bank such as EzineArticles, IdeaMarketers and ArticleBiz to name a few.
Articles work because they can be personal and addictive unlike the annoying pop-up ads of yesteryear. They can be used in different formats such as in postings or in newsletters and can be used to inform, sell or promote. Harnessing relevant keywords, businesses can benefit well from free advertising and an opportunity to generate more traffic.
Pay Per Click Marketing
Pay Per Click (PPC) is a form of advertising used by search engines and content websites such as blogs. When it started in 1998 by Jeffrey Brewer of Goto.com it was just a concept yet to proove itself. Google started search engine advertising in 1999 and in 2000 AdWords hit the web, allowing advertisers to create text ads for inclusion on the search engine. They followed with PPC as we know it today in 2002. Until then advertisements were always charged at ‘cost per thousand impressions CPM’.
It’s still an affordable method of advertising and can help customers find websites that carry the products or services they want. The Advertisers bid on keywords and can select which ones to use and their estimated budget. How much you want to spend depends on how many impressions of your ad are shown. There is a lot of secrecy around the top keywords and large companies are keen to keep these close to their chest and will pay highly for the privilege. If Google AdWords doesn’t suit your budget don’t forget Yahoo! and other engines such as Ask.
It didn’t take long for click fraud to develop, as competitors realised the potential in damaging another’s business by clicking repeatedly on their ad in the hope they would pay out unecessarily. In order to prevent invalid clicks, on their AdSense Help Center page, Google responded with,
‘Our specialists carefully monitor clicks and impressions on Google ads in order to protect your interests as well as those of our advertisers. To do this, we use both automated systems and human reviews, analyzing all ad clicks and impressions for any invalid click activity that may artificially drive up an advertiser’s costs or a publisher’s earnings.
Our system enables us to filter out most invalid clicks and impressions, and our advertisers are not charged for this activity.
In addition to our automated system, we have a team dedicated to detecting invalid activity using several specialized tools and a wide variety of techniques based on extensive experience tracking and monitoring user behavior and analyzing scenarios. We continually upgrade our detection mechanisms to proactively combat invalid activity.’
The difference with PPC as opposed to general search rankings is that it is possible to be at the top if you spend more, although it is not important as people do generally click on the majority of the ads displayed. If a keyword is not working out for you, Google doesn’t automatically pull the ad or ask you to change it so you need to keep track of progress and click through rates. If done properly, PPC can be a worthwhile advertising avenue.
How to write effective email newsletters
Writing effective email newsletters as a marketing means to generate more traffic is hardly the secret of the century but is often overlooked as being just spam. I receive about 50 newsletters a day in my inbox and most are unread and without even going past the subject line, are deleted. So how can a newsletter be not only effective but have the ability to avoid the dreaded junk folder.
Email newsletters come in two formats. The webpage clone or the plain text version. The webpage clone is an exact or close copy of the company’s webpage to impress the reader and engage them in reading the text or buying a product. The second is function only. It gets the content out there but as it looks fairly boring, people tend to ignore it. Although some sales newsletters can be quite engaging especially if it has a catchy title and not ‘monthly newsletter’.
If the title and subject are personal the recipient is more likely to open it. Keeping it informal through design and language adds to grabbing the reader’s attention.
Adding interactivity to a newsletter can work well such as video, audio, SitePal, podcasting or a voting poll, you want people to either buy something or direct them to your site in order to buy something so engage them first then tempt them with the goods.
If you are bulk emailing, try out options such as SendBlaster who offer a free and paid version. Of course there is Outlook, this does involve organising your own subscriber list. Our good old friends Google groups again have not failed to be included in as much as possible, they have set-up a tool to create a list of unlimited people to send emails.
Hosted mass emailing companies are set-up for exactly this purpose. They have the most flexibility and allow creation of lists, opt out of subscribers,spam filters and generation of reports. GraphicMail offer a free with advertising version for 5000 emails, plus template generators.
There are numerous resources both free, open source and paid that can meet most requirements and engage the customer’s interest. If you know of any more or have tried any, let us know.
Find the Right Keywords or Die!
Finding the right keywords shouldn’t be too difficult or should it? For most sites, the right keywords are essential in getting the right customers and the sales. For others it just enhances a simple site and they prefer to go for paid advertising. Focus on the keywords now and you won’t have to pay out for lots of advertising. Creating a website that sells online should be easy, but it can be very difficult. You become the researcher, the sales person, the manager and the after-sales support person all in one. In order to sell you need to convince your site visitors that they need the product. From a search engine’s point of view, this is very difficult, but your website should be believable, relevant and focused on what your site visitors want to buy.
If your visitors find you from your keywords, then you are doing something right or spending a lot of money. Try to work out the keywords and phrases associated with your products that people may enter when searching . If someone is searching for cheap cars, they may start searching for ‘cheap cars’ and then a location, e.g. ‘cheap cars denver’ and refine it even further into towns in order to find what they are looking for. If the domain contains ‘cheap cars’ plus the locations, even better. As this would be a popular domain, look at variations such as using a hypen ‘cheap-cars’ or a different extension such as .ca, .mobi, .tv. Some of the extensions have restrictions which you would need to look carefully at these before purchase. For many .com is still the favorite, tried and tested domain extension.
Keywords should appear on the first paragraph of text, on the homepage or landing page and somewhere on each page should contain your relevant keyphrases. Sites that lack these keywords fail to grab a visitors attention or the search engine meaning a potential loss of trade. Include anchor links to ensure your content is referenced and don’t forget ALT tags on images so those without Flash (yes, there are some people) can view the page without missing much.
Sounds easy? This is just the beginning, as time goes on a new technique will emerge meaning even more work to get the site seen.
10 tips on creating effective e-books
Creating an effective e-book is an ideal way to provide information to your customers easily and cheaply.
1. E-books allow customers to access the material in their own time, at their own leisure, rather than having to read a website full of information. Ebook viewers include Adobe Acrobat and Ybook
2. E-books can be downloaded and saved to a customer’s hard drive so they can read it offline or on a mobile device. Though they’re often disguised as simple and convenient informational references, e-books are great marketing tools because they constantly provide consumers with information about a company’s products or services.
3. E-books are available at 24/7 which makes it easy for a business to keep in touch and offer information or support to customers when it is convenient for them.
4. E-books are incredibly inexpensive and take up a lot less space, as they’re stored on a computer. Besides a company’s website, there are several places on the Internet where an e-book can be stored and saved for customer download. Company’s can post blogs and send emails, both of which can contain links for e-books and provide extra information about the business as well.
5. E-books must be interesting, detailed, captivating and original. Software includes Hypermarker . Start off by creating a great title that is sure to make a customer continue reading. Like a newspaper or magazine article, the title of an e-book can be the deciding factor in whether or not a customer takes the time to read the book all the way through.
6. The content of the e-book should be original and interesting. Because there are so many businesses using the Internet as their main marketing strategy, customers are not likely to waste their time reading something they believe they’ve already read before. If you are looking for content or free e-books try download.com or ebook88.com
7. Once created, an e-book should be promoted well and offered not only to existing customers but prospective consumers who know little or nothing about your business. Like any magazine or hard copy book, an e-book should be pleasing to the eyes, easy to understand and aimed towards educating and informing the reader of your services.
8. Promotion is key, email a link of a site where it can be downloaded or by emailing it to them directly. Because it’s easily accessible and can be transferred throughout the Internet in a simple way, customers are more likely to share an e-book with friends and family. There are numerous resources where you can submit your own e-books for others to download.
9. Be sure that, at the end of your e-book, your company contact information is listed to ensure that those learning about your services for the first time will be able to contact you and your business website.
10. Give one away free on your site, it keeps them coming back for more.
Write a Business Description that Sells
You are attending a business meeting with other small business owners and are asked to describe who you are and what you do. How many people sit there and mumble a name and title and leave it at that. So many are unable to actually describe their business, so if they can’t do it, how will their customers know what the business does? Getting this right means a clearer vision, focused business plans and concentrated marketing efforts. A business plan always begins with a definition of the business. By doing this you will discover your Unique Selling Point that will help tailor your business and win customers.
One technique of describing a business is to start at the end and work backwards. Knowing what you want to achieve is helpful in working out how to get there. By setting milestones the process is clearer. Use brainstorming tools and free resources. BusinessBalls, although a little old fashioned, contains numerous downloads on classic management styles and business planning forms. You need to work out your audience and what you hope to provide to them. If you don’t know about SWOT Analysis, work out your competitors and how they got to where they are. There are a lot of clues in the competition but remember business is ruthless and what goes around definately comes around, ten fold!
Freewriting is an interesting process usually adopted by novelists, whereby you allow yourself time to scribble, doodle or make lists about your business and write about it continuously for anything from ten minutes to half an hour. You will know when you have written sufficient. There are no hard and fast rules about using these tools but one. Do not assess or change what you have written as you go. Simply allow the ideas to flow. Even if you are doubt that a particular idea will be helpful just write it down. Only when you have spent sufficient time engaged in the process should you look at what you have done. Then you can sift through it all and retain what works for you. You will be surprised at what emerges. As mentioned, these techniques can be done on your own or with others in a focus group. Obviously you may want to discuss your ideas with other business people and professionals. But at the end of the day it’s your business and you need to know what it is you are offering in the marketplace. It helps immeasurably when you are asked by a financial institution or a customer to write a proposal, and when you are developing sales material.
Five points to remember are:
1. Give an overview of your industry
2. What, where, why, when of your company
3. Description of your products/services
4. Your market share or the niche you cover
5. Pricing strategy. e.g. high-end or affordable
SEO -Getting Back To Basics
Search engine optimization (SEO) is not only well known with webmasters but has evolved into different techniques aside from the usual keyword matching. Optimising not only covers the general website but the blog needs attention also. So, for example, having your blog optimized will improve its listings in the major search engines.
We all want more visitors and many think you can click your fingers and you magically appear at the top of the ranks. It does take time to manage the content of your site. You have to focus on one post at a time. You can’t merely increase traffic by optimizing a single page. Instead, you have to adjust the content of each post and its tags to qualify for search engines. By spending a few extra minutes on each post you can match your keywords to the content.
Ideally, search engine optimization is a collection of relevant, interesting content, simple design and user-friendly. Work out the keywords and key phrases for your site. This should be a popular phrase that many people use to describe your goods or services. There are many sites that will generate keywords and phrases based on a single word, such as Google Keyword Tool and Website Optimizer. After you identify the appropriate keywords, write your articles and posts to include them. But don’t overdo it otherwise it can be seen as spam.
Your domain name is the ideal platform for keywords. Are your keywords included in some form in your domain name? For example, www.internetebooks.com has more chance of being found on a search of ebboks than www.davesreadingstuff.com Use a select number of keywords in your titles, sub heads, and in at least once in the first and last paragraphs of the text. Highlighting your keyword text in bold is a way of bringing your keywords to the attention of search engines. Also, start using your keyword phrases in blogs, or by updating article content. You site will rank higher in the search engines if the content is unique and frequently added to or changed. Search engine optimization is a great method for driving more traffic to your site and results in improved sales to your site.
5 Ways To Make Your Blog Work For You
How do you make money from a blog? With so much choice regarding websites and hosting, the common blog is an ideal platform for showcasing your products and business. Most blogs are free to set-up, maintain and are a ready made traffic center. So how do you make money from a blog? There are many ways to do this and I have listed some here:
1. Display Affiliate Links and Banners
Make money from a blog displaying affiliate links and banners, you earn commission for referring a visitor to the affiliate’s site, your blog acts as a sales agent. The links should be relevant and placed within context otherwise people disregard it and see it as spam. Take a look at Commission Junction for ideas.
2. Sell Advertising Space
This may seem obvious but is commonly overlooked. The blog is full of opportunities to display small ads of different sizes. Providing they are relevant to your blog, you could earn a nice monthly income. AdSense, DoubleClick and BlogAds are amongst some of the more successful.
3. Sell Your Product
Direct selling of your own products such as books or videos, direct to the customer via a shopping cart or a sales page. For example Janet, the cake maker could sell her own cake recipe book and even a range of cake mixes.
It all depends on the market as to whether your product will sell, although if it does you could join an affiliate network and have others sell your product for a commission.
Companies such as Cafepress create, sell and drop-ship your products. An ideal solution for those who want to concentrate on running their business and not let their business run them.
4. Getting Paid for Writing Articles
Writing articles for your blog or for another has many benefits. There are many free article banks and article writing centers but Google now penalises duplicate content and disregards all back links on these sites meaning only the unique and relevant get through.
Each article you write and submit to the article banks though can be rewarding especially as each one has your link on it allowing thousands to access your material and link back to you.
You may still have to rewrite the content if you post it on your own blog and you should only write on relevant topics that match your content otherwise your audience will get turned off.
5. Write your blog and sell it!
Finally, once you have completed all your hard work designing and filling the blog with wonderful content. Sell it on to a large organisation.
Not just confined to social networking sites and search engines, many websites are bought out by larger companies, usually the competitors who are after a bigger market share.
This is by no means a complete list and as more ideas emerge they shall be added in. Think about how you are going to make money from your blog as it can have an impact on your writing.
