Importance of Keyword Research and Analysis for SEO

July 8th, 2010

Internet marketing is becoming a powerful medium to advertise online and offline businesses these days. Internet marketing crosses geographical boundaries and gives businesses a global appeal and wider audience. Various search engines help millions of user everyday to find exactly what they are looking for through their search engine sites. As users’ type in the words to be searched (better known as keywords) on the search engine site, the search engine goes through billions of pages in its database and gives various pages a score based on the relevance of the page. The higher the score of a webpage, higher is it ranked while displaying the result. Businesses, on the other hand, use something called as “Search Engine optimization” which relies on keywords to get higher rank for their websites. If the keyword used by a business for search optimization does not match the one used by the search engine, their chances of ruling the virtual world are almost over. So these keywords can turn out to be deal maker or deal breaker in the online market.

So if you are looking at tapping the online market you need to spend some time in doing “Keyword Research” on your own or you can outsource SEO needs to a well reputed affordable SEO service expert. Keyword research is a process that helps to find appropriate keywords which describe your business well and increase the overall ranking for your site. But keyword reach is not the only thing to look out for. Even if you do come out with some great keywords and get a higher rank for your website you may end up a loser. This may be because the area for which you are becoming a high ranker during web search is actually not your area of work, so you actually are not reaching your target customers. Thus, appropriate keyword research and analysis of relevant traffic via Google adwords and other ranking tools can greatly help in reaching out to your target customers. Only when the traffic reaching your site is of potential customers, i.e. people who are actually interested in your product, will you be able to convert them into real customers. An SEO search engine submission agency can be of big help with their professional knowledge and wide experience in locating the right keywords for your website optimization.

As there are so many businesses out there which offer similar services, keyword research becomes all the more critical. With so many businesses operating along the same lines they tend to use the same keyword for their search engine optimization. So even if you use a high ranking affordable SEO service keyword, your chances of actually ranking high might be slim since your competitors will also be using the same word. So proper research needs to be done to see how good are the ranking chances of using a specific keyword among the competitors.

Another thing to keep in mind is which country or region you are targeting. Some keywords which rank higher in some areas may not work well in another area. Also you need to concentrate on the spelling and local usage before deciding on a particular keyword.

Optimizing your website with relevant keywords, directory submission, social bookmarking and press release distribution among other things might just be the catalyst for your online business to take off with a big bang. Thus, whether you choose to outsource SEO to another agency or do it in house is a choice you can make; but to opt for search engine optimization or not is not a choice, it’s a MUST!

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Factors You Should Consider Before Hiring An Affordable SEO Service

July 1st, 2010

Are you looking for an affordable SEO service but do not know how to choose the right one? With a plethora of options to choose from and SEO scams becoming the norm of the day, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find out which one is not a fake. Some of the things to look out for before you outsource SEO services to another agency:

Your Aim and Budget: First of all write down on a piece of paper what exactly you want your low cost outsource SEO service to achieve for you. Are you planning for a large presence or looking at some niche market with top ranking for some specific areas only. Of course, if you are looking for a greater presence you need to shell out more money. Decide how much money you are ready to pay to the SEO Company for their search engine submission services. Another factor you can decide upon is: whether you are planning to fully outsource the work or planning to do some of the work in-house also. Once you get a clear picture of your objectives you can start looking for an affordable SEO service which fits in your requirements.

Ask for Recommendations: Ask for recommendations from the people you know – your business partners, past colleagues, present colleagues or your friends. You can put up the question in various online forums stating your specific requirements. Since you cannot be sure of the person providing the answers online do some more research for the answers given online.

Do Some Online Search for Company Name: Run some Google search for the company name. Look out for testimonies and reviews of the outsource SEO specialist you have selected. If company is a fraud there are chances that you will see some complaints against them.

Ask for References: Once you sort out some names for the SEO search engine submission service, ask them about the clients they have worked for and the sites they have optimized. A good work done will definitely have some happy customers who will be ready to vouch for the exemplary work done by the SEO company.

Do they Guarantee Top Ranking: This definitely should get some bells ringing. SEO is fairly complex, different search engines have different algorithms, hence nobody can guarantee No 1 ranking to their customers. The selected outsource SEO Company needs to have fairly good idea about your area of work, the keywords you are looking at and other players in the same space before they can give you some honest opinion about the results they can get you.

Time Factor: Does the search engine submission company promise to deliver too soon? Search engine optimization takes time. There is some research which goes into providing effective optimization. So if the company promises to get the work done in a week or so, there is definitely something fishy there.

Ask about the Techniques: Ask them about the practices and techniques they follow in optimizing your website. Do they come out in the open and answer all your questions satisfactorily? Do they tend to avoid some questions? If yes, then dig deeper. They might be employing some unethical practices which might put you in a risky situation later on.

You are paying to outsource SEO requirements, so don’t hesitate to ask questions and only after being 100% satisfied do go ahead with assigning some work.

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How does Social Bookmarking help in Search Engine Optimization of your Website?

July 1st, 2010

Let us start by understanding what actually is. Social bookmarking is a way by which you can save your favorite link and later access it from any place which has an internet connection. But how do you actually do it? Well there are a lot of popular social bookmarking sites like Digg, BlinkList, Reddit, Diigo, Propeller, Mixx, Google, Mr. Wong, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Simpy, Backflip, Delicious, Newsvine, Connotea etc. where you can register and save your link for later access.

Are you wondering how this type of social networking helps you with SEO of your website? There are quite a few advantages of social bookmarking. It is a very good platform to get directly in touch with your potential customers and make an impression on them, that too with very little effort. To do that, you can start by opening your account with some social networking site and then bookmarking one of your website articles in it. To generate quality unique content for your website you can outsource SEO to an affordable SEO service company that can provide keyword rich content relevant to your field of work. Once bookmarked, your article is readily available to all the online audience for free. If it is interesting enough it will be picked up by many readers and the link forwarded to their contacts. Not only that, but interested readers might even link back to your website if they consider your website worth linking to. So you will generate lots of traffic and free backlinks to your site. This is what is called viral marketing and it is a great organic traffic booster that eventually gives you higher rankings in the search engines. Though the direct traffic generated by this method may only last for a short time, but what is important to note here is that you generate long term indirect traffic too. The people who bookmarked your article will be interested in your area of work and if you keep on churning out quality engaging content there are chances that you will get lots of repeat and permanent visits from your readers. Some of them may even be potential buyers and customers, leading to an increase in actual sales and profits via social bookmarking.

Another thing which is very important in social bookmarking is the quality of your content. If your content is of good quality, unique and interesting it will be bookmarked by many which in turn will increase your credibility and popularity. The more popular you become higher will be your listing among various social bookmarking sites. Also your listing will be still higher if different users across various networking sites access it rather than only one user accessing it again and again. Since ranking is based on the quality and popularity of your content, this data is used by search engines as well to evaluate your rankings.

Thus social bookmarking is quite an effective way of generating traffic and backlinks which eventually will help you in getting a better ranking among various search engines.

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SEO Best Practices for Yahoo Search Engine

July 1st, 2010

Search engine optimization helps businesses to stand out among their competitors. Everybody is aware of the well known Yahoo search engine that helps users across the globe to find what they are looking for. So how can you get in the good books of Yahoo? Getting a top ranking can be quite tough. Here is a breakdown of some of the best practices you can follow for Yahoo search engine submission and for updating your website:

Take care of your URL Name, Title and Meta Tags:
Try to include some great keywords in your title, URL and Meta tags. This information is quite important for Yahoo search engine optimization. The keyword that you are using should be relevant to your area of your work. Include keywords in headings as well but make sure that the content that you are putting in is relevant to the keywords. Ideally the length of your URL should not be more than three to four words and title tag can be around six to seven words. Try to put keywords near the beginning of the title to get more attention. Instead of using a wide range of keywords throughout the page, you can add keywords used in the meta-tag. Pages which have useful meta-tags fare higher with Yahoo. So spend some time in filling your meta-tags with accurate data.

Links:
Create quality inbound and outbound links. The links should be interesting enough so that you can entice your reader into clicking them. But do not go on a linking spree. Quality of the links matters a lot these days. Irrelevant spam links can even get you penalized. Try to grow your site organically. Submit your link in various social networking sites. You can take help from affordable SEO service of article submission, press release distribution and others to better optimize your website for greater number of free backlinks. Create a good article for press release distribution and add a link to your website at the end of it. Find out the popular players in your area of work and get in touch with them. You can exchange links for your site with them. The presence of quality backlinks from authority websites counts a lot with Yahoo and other search engines.

Keyword Density and Positioning:
Though keywords are important care should be taken that your content is not filled with too many of them. Your search engine might not be too happy about it and may consider it as spamming for higher rankings. Try to find some other innovative ways to use keywords across your website. While adding content to your website, look for keyword proximity. It is good if your keywords appear one after the other. For example if you are using a keyword like ‘doll house’ then it is better to have ‘doll house’ together than having ‘doll’ first followed by some other text and then ‘house’. If you are using key phrases instead of keywords try to find some popular key phrases which will get an exact match while doing a search. Otherwise you can even use two or three keywords instead of a key phrase.

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Tips and Best Practices for Local SEO

June 18th, 2010

How frequently do you refer to your telephone book or the Yellow Pages to locate a local doctor, electrician or grocer? Most of you must not even remember where your precious phone book is; the reason being that everyone today is logged on to the web, looking up services via mobiles and Google Maps. It is common intellect that one will first make a priority search with local intent for any product or services before resorting to outsource SEO needs. Thus if your business has not yet focused on making its presence felt in the local search arena, you are sure missing out on some easy big bucks.

You must have noticed that if you search for a particular service like a dentist, Google is most likely to throw up data close to your own location. This Geotargeting algorithm being used by the new age search engines provides you a unique opportunity to improve your visibility on local searches. You can optimize your online business with local search engine submissions. Below are some tips and best practices to heighten the presence of your local affordable SEO service.

  • To promote your local affordable SEO service, claim your local business listings on all well known search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo and prompt them to properly index and rank your website. This will also ensure that your listing is never tampered with by a competitor.
  • Follow proper listing guidelines. While filing information for your local business listings provide an accurate and comprehensive profile with the address and phone number of your company. This enables search engines to correctly collaborate any third party business data it picks up, to you. Your verification will be complete with a phone call or postcard sent to your business address.
  • Upload loads of pictures and videos of your affordable SEO service business to promote and make it more realistic to the visitors.
  • It is acceptable to ask for reviews from your customers to improve credibility. Request customers to provide unbiased review on Local Google and Yahoo platforms. Even negative reviews make your website more appealing to potential customers. Just don’t promote the negative trend.
  • Take help of Google Trends and Insights, Adwords and PPC campaigns to determine which keywords to target for highest traffic to your affordable SEO service. Create valuable unique content for local site promotion and earn local links.
  • Create one listing for every physical location of your company. Create individual pages targeting different geographical locations. Route all local listings to the relevant pages of your website and not the home page. Have the page enumerate all services and products for that specific area in detail.
  • Instead of focusing only on popular keywords that attract huge traffic it might also be a good idea to concentrate on less known but more specific keywords that will probably show up your website many more times on the local SERPs.
  • Make sure to incorporate your address on all your web pages so that the visitors are always aware of your geographical location. Also always include a local phone number o your website.
  • Whatever happens, always remember that Customer is the King. Treat them correctly and never give negative vibes. Both your online and offline customers use the web and can leave reviews that hurt your business. Search engines compile information on your business from third party profiles and other business websites. Try to represent your company in a good light and take some if not complete control of what appears about your company online.

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Myths about Search Engine Optimisation

May 31st, 2010

Almost all businesses and SEOs are somewhat aware of the myths surrounding any affordable SEO service. Still the lingering doubts of ‘what if?’ lead many to believe them to be true, and thus waste a lot of time, energy and sweat worrying after them. Here are some commonly believed myths about SEO packages that are absolutely untrue!

1.Using Flash will devalue your website.

That’s not true. A content rich page is always more preferable to Flashy pages, but that does not mean you cannot use it at all. Using Flash here and there to make your website more interesting and avoiding putting important content in Flash elements is just fine with the search engines. Also try to add alternative text for browsers that do not read Flash and your search engine optimisation won’t get affected in the least.

2.Submitting to search engines is the fastest way to get indexed.

Not exactly. You should submit to search engines to prompt the search spiders for faster indexation; but developing natural, organic, relevant backlinks is the best and most effective way of ranking with the search engines long term.

3.To hide pages from crawlers, use Robots.txt file.

It works but not 100%. Using the ‘disallow’ tag won’t stop external incoming links to lead Google crawlers to your blocked pages. If you really don’t want Google to crawl some pages, donot link them to the website or better still add a secure login password.

4.You should optimize each page with 3-4% keyword density.

Keyword density for optimization lost ground with search engines long ago. Search engine algorithms can easily detect any set patterns in website content. Use of keywords relevant to the content is more important. Clever use of keywords in appropriate places within the content actually helps in optimization.

5.Each page should be optimized for just one keyword.

Misplaces belief. Some businesses think that optimizing with just one keyword phrase will bring more focus to that keyword. But they fail to realize that natural flow of content with just one keyword phrase in the entire page is near impossible, and Google bots can tell. Instead it is better to optimize with 3-4 relevant keywords to bring more targeted search engine traffic to the page. Natural flowing content is more critical for SEO success.

6.Linking to authority websites pushes up your Google rankings.

If it was that easy, everyone would do it and rank at the top. If you get links from well reputed websites, that boosts the image of your own website and helps visitors take you seriously. But it definitely does not give you any added advantage with the search rankings.

7.High page rank is same as high rankings in search results.

Not exactly. Page ranks are not direct parameters for your SERP ranks. High page rank means Google recognizes your quality of work and considers you as an authority in it. But you cannot really determine the actual page rank that helps your site’s performance in the search results for your target keywords. A high page rank from Google is only an indicator that your site will also rank better in SERPs.

8.Your website must have a Sitemap.

A sitemap helps Google crawl your website better. But if you have built a crawler friendly website with no broken links, there is no reason for you to worry about losing any precious rankings in its absence. It is always a good search engine optimisation practice to build a sitemap for easier navigation, but its absence alone won’t harm your website.

9.Regularly updating your website leads to higher rankings.

Frequent posts on your site attract the Google crawlers more frequently for indexation, that could give you more visibility, but it does not increase your rankings. So don’t update if not required. Crawlers like relevant updates not just any updates!

10.SEO your website for immediate results.

This is the most widely misplaces myth about search engine optimisation. Those of you hoping to achieve overnight traffic, SEO won’t do it for you. There is no sustainable quick fix to success. SEO is a long term process that requires various techniques and regular updates for long term rankings.

And finally, the greatest myth- Guaranteed Rankings! Nothing in life is guaranteed and neither is your site ranking. Of course, quality optimization is an assurance of positive results.

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Spam Comment for Search Engine Optimisation: A Complete No!

May 10th, 2010

There’s a subtle but distinct difference between a Spam Comment and Blog Comment in general. A well constructed relevant comment that adds value to a blog, with a no follow website link is genuine blog commenting. It is valued by every blog owner and they may even reward you with a backlink from another post to acknowledge your input. But when you come across a single word or two word comment with a site link or an unrelated gibberish comment, it becomes a spam.

Spam comments or blog spams abuse the comments field of sites with backlinks to their own site to boost their search rankings for better search engine optimisation. It not only belittles other people’s hard work but is also risky for the spammers as this can lead to their site being blacklisted by search engines. Google and other search engines have long wizened up to this tactic and developed algorithms to detect and devalue comment spam and links. Thus it is much more worthwhile to utilize the same time and energy for SEO article submission, affordable press release distribution and manual directory submission that are some of the guaranteed methods of boosting one’s search rankings.

It is better to use affordable SEO strategy and regularly update your website with useful and original content that will attract visitors as well as search engine spiders to your site. And although blog comments do not provide you with any link juice, they still are useful in making your target audience aware of your existence and promoting your products and services. With short, precise, conversational comments in popular blogs, you can also encourage the Google spiders to index your site faster. Use blog commenting as a social media marketing tool to encourage discussions and for a direct interface with your audience and customers.

To reduce and prevent spam comments on your website, try and use some of these simple and effective techniques:

Use comment moderation to manually review and approve comments before they appear on your site.

Get your bloggers to prove they are real live humans by using CAPTCHAs. This can prevent automatic comment spamming.

Make it compulsory for bloggers to leave their email address with their comments to prevent anonymous posts.

Add default ‘no follow’ attribute to all posted comments.

If possible, change your server configuration to remove hyperlinks from comments.

Turn off the comments page with Meta tags and robots.txt file to prevent Google from indexing the page.

Finally, if you have used comment spam technique in the past on other websites and want to correct your mistake, browse through your incoming links in Webmaster Tools and delete all the spam links you once created. Then file a request with Google to reconsider your site for rankings.

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Directory Submission: How much link juice does it provide?

May 4th, 2010

A few years ago, you could rule the top ranks of Yahoo and MSN with religious directory postings. That is not the case anymore. For competitive Google Rankings you need to do directory submission and much more. But directory submission service is still a necessity and what you need to figure out is how to extract the most link juice from your submissions. For that you have to submit to the very best authentic directories. Here’s a stab at defining tier 1 directories:

Best way to submit is to key in on your niche. Make website directory submission to directories that will allow you to suggest new categories. Or try and make maximum submissions to niche directories. You will have the advantage of fewer links on the page and your link will become all the more relevant to your website.

Try and submit to free directories and those where you are not required to give a backlink. What the directory is conveying is ‘since there is no fees, money will not bias the listings.’

Make SEO directory submission to sites with strong editorial policies. Authentic directories, even if they charge a fee, won’t guarantee your website’s inclusion. What this means is that you are paying to review your listing, not to get listed. This means that there is real editorial judgment implied in the policy. The listings from such directories convey value to the search engines.

Try submitting in a geographical location from the user perspective. Generally, people have a tendency to hire someone local rather than far away.

You can own the search engines with directory submission if your field is niche enough. But for general categories and competitive Google SERPs, you need to do directory submission and then some more search engine optimisation.

It is always better to go slow with the directories, make submissions over a period of time rather than hammer them for a solid few days! This way you come across as a serious and trustworthy website to the search engines.

The link juice from directory submission to ‘hard to get into’ selective directories is higher than what you will get from hundreds of submissions to poor quality directories.
Directories that have earned lots of high quality back links from acclaimed editorial sources carry more value than those whose links come from SEO communities and paid sources.

The best way to determine if a directory will pass link value is to observe its ability to rank for its own title tags. Those directories that rank highly can surely provide a ranking boost to your site too!

And last but not the least, a visit to their category pages and listed sites should impress you.

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Is Linking Sites from the Same Class C Block Ineffective for Search Engine Optimisation?

April 20th, 2010

It is believed that search engines may consider linking among sites belonging to same Class C block as triangular linking scheme and thus do not award credit to such links. From search engine optimisation perspective these links won’t be penalized though by the search engines.

First of all what are Class C Block of IPs? How would one know if the sites belong to same Class C block? Many get confused with Class C IP block as the 3rd octet in IP address; i.e. CC in AA.BB.CC.xx. This may not be technically correct.

The IPv4 addressing with respect to classful networks implies that the Class C addresses will have the first octet in 192 – 223 range. Here AA.BB.CC signifies the network ID and xx signifies the actual host ID. Thus a single Class C block would have 2,097,151 network addresses and each network address would have 254 host addresses. Hence AA.BB.CC put together signify a Class C Block and not just the third octet CC.

It is really difficult to acquire multiple IPs in different Class C Blocks, especially if one is hosting all the sites on the same hosting server. Although it is possible with large hosts that one may explicitly request the sites to have IPs on different Class C blocks. But by default, this is not taken care of.

If one back link comes from 195.12.1.1 and another comes from 195.12.1.2, they would be considered one and the same by the search engines. The value of these links may not be of much use and this is one the ways for the search engines to find related sites.

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Contributing to internet rather than just using it

February 26th, 2010

This is the information age, and thanks to internet every living soul today has been touched directly or indirectly by it. The growth and evolution of internet in the last decade has been unprecedented. The search engines provide us with a plethora of information to select from and this is the stumbling block. There is so much information available online that one gets bogged down by which is the best choice. That’s where public opinion comes in. Products ranging from toothpaste to diamond, services like cutting grass, medical consultation to ‘SEO experts’ advice are available at the click of the mouse. But there’s not much feedback available on the performance of these products and services. If only everyone would share their positive or negative experiences, there could be a wealth of information that we could review through before deciding on our final purchase. Feedback is an important means of communication, which not only helps others to make an informed choice but also connects us to the rest of the world.

Internet provides the advantage of quality, value, speed, 24 hour accessiblility, variety selection and information. Still the lack of confidence deters the purchaser from placing the final order. All this can be easily overcome if public feedback on product quality, cost, performance, aftersale services, return policy and existence of fakes is readily available online.

By being an active participant, people can contribute to content creation on the internet and see it as a resource that they understand and use effectively. By contributing through internet, email and text messages, one can be a part of any society or culture near or far removed and even play a vital role in shaping world politics. Until and unless we experience internet as something we can help to create, we might miss out on a wealth of resources, information, interaction and growth opportunities offered by the digital era.

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