In order to locate products that sell online, we need to understand what people already want to buy. Finding a good choice of idea or product is always accompanied by interfacing the demand for the product in the current market and the level of competition or market share that the product will be having in the long run.
“What should I sell? What products are hot selling? These are the questions most people are trying to find an answer in order for them to make the definite decision. And if we really want to know the answer to this question, our only choice is to do some research. There are all kinds of twists along the road that may lead you to think you have a high-demand idea. We must be able to understand and satisfy the need, wants and expectations of our customers on a certain product that they’re trying to buy. This three are called the basic needs or minimum requirements in a purchase. Needs are the basic reasons or the minimum requirements consumers are looking for in a product or service. They are called the qualifying or “gatekeeper” dimensions in a purchase. Wants are the determining dimensions among many choices. Expectations, on the other hand, are values or intangibles associated with a product or service. Expectations are actually part of “wants” but they become extremely important when products or services are not differentiated.
For example, in reading a logic book, university students look for the following: Relevant logic concepts use of simple language, easy to understand and affordable prices. These similar ideas can be applied to Internet Sales as well. After all, the Internet is just another place to sell products. The basic concept of demand is the same there as it is anywhere else, and has been all the time.
Now, the second thing that must be considered in finding “hot” products to sell are the level of competition or the market shares do your product will have. Market share or level of competition means the ratio of your brand sales versus the total market sales. While companies would naturally define its target competitors, it is actually the consumers who ultimately decide the competitive frame, or the list related products or services that consumers consider when exercising their purchasing power. We must therefore choose the market segment where we can have a potential leadership or at least a strong challenger role. Because the overriding objective of getting into this business is not just to satisfy the needs and wants of our customers but to do so profitably better than his competition. Otherwise, our competition will end up satisfying the customers better than our own interest.
Third factor to be considered in finding hot selling products is finding out the general interest level about the product. General interest in a product helps us to gauge where our demand and competition numbers fall into the big picture. Simply saying, if there isn’t much demand for the product, and there isn’t much competition, it would seem that it might not be good a good put up for sale. But the research doesn’t stop here; there is one last thing to be considered to exactly find the hot selling products that you’ve been looking for. We must also learn how others are advertising those products. If there are a good number of them doing so, it may mean that it’s a good product to get into. Coming to the last phase of the process is analyzing and evaluating all the information that has been collected. We have to look at all of the data we have collected on demand, competition, and advertising, and make decision as how they all balance out.
And here are several factors or aspects that must be measured: (a) not enough demand means not enough people are going to buy (b) too much competition means not enough of a profit to go around (c) too much advertising drives up the price of pay per click ads, and competition as well (d) not enough general interest, combined with low demand, means there may not be a good market even if there is competition trying to make the sales.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Twenty Ways to Boost Traffic and promote your site
1) Yahoo Answers.
You can go through and start answering questions at answers.yahoo.com.
You'll be surprised at the many questions left unanswered in many categories. You can become an "expert" within many fields by answering questions, and having relevant links point back to your site. It's a quick way to build back links and actually have targeted users viewing your site.
Check it out at answers.yahoo.com
Be sure to never spam. It's important to be friendly with your answers, and provide good relevant information. The goal here is to have the user to trust you.
To get started simply browse the categories or you can search for questions. For example you can do a search for "making money" and it will produce questions people have asked about "making money".
2) Myspace.com
Create a myspace account and start marketing to the users. Some quick tips for myspace are:
a. Never spam
b. Join as many relevant groups as possible and participate within the groups.
c. Post interesting bulletins that provide useful information
d. Send friend requests to users within the groups you've joined.
e. Use graphics in your posts to catch the attention of the reader.
f. Use catchy titles, anything boring will be ignored.
g. For non-targeted friends, you can look into friend trains such as friendstorm.net
h. To automate friend adding, comment posting and bulletin posting you can check friendbot.com and madderadder.com
3) Yahoo Groups
Join yahoo groups. I've joined groups within the "Home Business" section and promoted my products/services to group members. You can also create your own group as well. One of the keys here is to offer free reports and tools to the users, and then use that free report to up sell your main products/services.
You can find home business groups at the link below:
http://finance.dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Business___Finance/Home_Business
The marketing/advertising groups at the link below:
http://finance.dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Business___Finance/Marketing_and_Advertising
4) Stumbleupon.com
Download the stumbleupon toolbar and ensure you click "I like this" to all of your websites, and have your friends and family do the same and click the "I like this" to all your sites. Also create pages specifically for stumbleupon that either is funny and odd, which can range from funny pictures to funny videos. You'll find many users clicking "I like this" and on those pages you should have links to all your other sites, and perhaps even Google Adsense to earn money from all the visits you'll receive. This works well since Stumbleupon users love to browse sites that have odd and funny stuff, or even free stuff would work good as well.
5) Forum linking
Every forum you join, always have a signature file that contains links to your most treasured websites. Be sure to use your preferred keywords within the links or perhaps catchy titles to entice clicks.
6) Craigslist.org
Submit free ads to craigslist.org. Be sure not to spam the classifieds.
One or two ads per week in a few select cities are fine. If you submit too many then your ads can be flagged or labeled as spam, so be careful with how many submissions you make. Always use catchy titles to ensure your ad is read.
7) Site maps
Always have a site map for all your sites, and ensure the site map is submitted to Google. You can create a free site map using the following site.
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
Once your site map is created, then upload it to your site, then submit it to Google using the link below:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/siteoverview?hl=en
8) E-Book Giveaway
If you have an e-book, give it away free, this can help build your mailing list and get more traffic to your site and offers. Ensure the e-book is of good value and that you'll have an up sell product to then make money from the subscribers at a later date.
9) CSS Website Design
When having your website designed it's best to use CSS to organize the layout of the site rather than using tables. CSS can power the layout using div tags instead of table tags. This will ensure your design is tableless. It will allow your textual content to have more weight when viewed by the search engines. If you have a designer, ensure you request "CSS Tabless Design" for your next website layout.
10) Submit To Directories
Most people already do this, but just in case you haven't, you should submit to directories. You can find a list of directories below:
http://strongestlinks.com/directories.php
The above list some of the better directories to submit to. By submitting to these directories you can acquire back links and more traffic to your site.
11) Tell a Friend
You can install a tell a friend script to your site that will allow users to "refer" your site to their friends and colleagues. The downside to this is that some spammers try to manipulate tell a friend scripts. Be sure the one you use actually has "image verification" to limit form manipulation; otherwise you may find spammers trying to use your form to send spam.
12) Search Engine Optimization
Always read up on the latest with optimizing your website for search engines. Some good forums to review for free tips are:
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12
http://forums.seochat.com/
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/
http://www.searchengineforums.com/apps/searchengine.forums/
I would join each of these forums or at least review the forums for the latest tips and strategies on search engine optimization.
13) Squidoo.com
Create a lense at squidoo.com, this is one of the latest fads.
14) Social bookmarking sites
Submit to each of these sites.
http://del.icio.us/ PageRank: 8/10
http://www.furl.net/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.simpy.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://del.icio.us/ PageRank: 8/10
http://www.backflip.com/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.blinklist.com/ PageRank: 6/10
http://bluedot.us/ PageRank: 6/10
http://de.lirio.us/bookmarks/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.diigo.com/user/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.shadows.com/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.markaboo.com/ PageRank: 5/10
http://ma.gnolia.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://linkagogo.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://netvouz.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.mister-wong.de/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.spurl.net/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.rawsugar.com/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.stumbleupon.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.digg.com/ PageRank: 8/10
http://www.blogmarks.net/ PageRank: 7/10
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.netvouz.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.taggly.com/ PageRank: 5/10
http://www.lookmarks.com/ PageRank: 5/10
http://socialbookmarking.org/ PageRank: 5/10
15) Article Promotion
Write articles are short reports and submit to ezinearticles.com,
goarticles.com, articlecity.com.
16) Site Explorer
Submit your sitemaps using Yahoo Site Explorer, similar format to
Google Webmaster Tools
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
17) Epinion.com
Post your opinion on products and services related to yours on
epinion.com
18) Alexa.com
Review popular websites on Alexa.com, and at the end of the message have your URL listed. It may not hyperlink automatically but a few people may still copy/paste into their address bar. Just make sure your post is really a review and not spam.
19) Newsletter Box
Always have a newsletter box on your website that will allow all visitors to subscribe for updates on your site. This can be a real winner, as you'll be able to market your product or service to these subscribers. You can use aweber.com, getresponse.com, constantcontact.com for the newsletter subscriptions.
20) Pay per Click search engines
I've listed this last since almost everyone does this, but I can't have a list of marketing tips without mentioning PPC. Google Adwords, Microsoft Ad Center and Yahoo Search Marketing are the big three. Other options are SearchFeed.com, Goclick.com.
For a comprehensive list of pay per click search engines see link below:
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/
Hopefully one of the marketing options mentioned caught your eye. I've used these various avenues to boost traffic to my sites on a regular basis. You may not get a flood of traffic overnight, but combining these methods can result in gradual increase traffic, and in some cases you can receive a tremendous boost. It's all about your efforts and sometimes having luck on your side helps as well :)
You can go through and start answering questions at answers.yahoo.com.
You'll be surprised at the many questions left unanswered in many categories. You can become an "expert" within many fields by answering questions, and having relevant links point back to your site. It's a quick way to build back links and actually have targeted users viewing your site.
Check it out at answers.yahoo.com
Be sure to never spam. It's important to be friendly with your answers, and provide good relevant information. The goal here is to have the user to trust you.
To get started simply browse the categories or you can search for questions. For example you can do a search for "making money" and it will produce questions people have asked about "making money".
2) Myspace.com
Create a myspace account and start marketing to the users. Some quick tips for myspace are:
a. Never spam
b. Join as many relevant groups as possible and participate within the groups.
c. Post interesting bulletins that provide useful information
d. Send friend requests to users within the groups you've joined.
e. Use graphics in your posts to catch the attention of the reader.
f. Use catchy titles, anything boring will be ignored.
g. For non-targeted friends, you can look into friend trains such as friendstorm.net
h. To automate friend adding, comment posting and bulletin posting you can check friendbot.com and madderadder.com
3) Yahoo Groups
Join yahoo groups. I've joined groups within the "Home Business" section and promoted my products/services to group members. You can also create your own group as well. One of the keys here is to offer free reports and tools to the users, and then use that free report to up sell your main products/services.
You can find home business groups at the link below:
http://finance.dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Business___Finance/Home_Business
The marketing/advertising groups at the link below:
http://finance.dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Business___Finance/Marketing_and_Advertising
4) Stumbleupon.com
Download the stumbleupon toolbar and ensure you click "I like this" to all of your websites, and have your friends and family do the same and click the "I like this" to all your sites. Also create pages specifically for stumbleupon that either is funny and odd, which can range from funny pictures to funny videos. You'll find many users clicking "I like this" and on those pages you should have links to all your other sites, and perhaps even Google Adsense to earn money from all the visits you'll receive. This works well since Stumbleupon users love to browse sites that have odd and funny stuff, or even free stuff would work good as well.
5) Forum linking
Every forum you join, always have a signature file that contains links to your most treasured websites. Be sure to use your preferred keywords within the links or perhaps catchy titles to entice clicks.
6) Craigslist.org
Submit free ads to craigslist.org. Be sure not to spam the classifieds.
One or two ads per week in a few select cities are fine. If you submit too many then your ads can be flagged or labeled as spam, so be careful with how many submissions you make. Always use catchy titles to ensure your ad is read.
7) Site maps
Always have a site map for all your sites, and ensure the site map is submitted to Google. You can create a free site map using the following site.
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
Once your site map is created, then upload it to your site, then submit it to Google using the link below:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/siteoverview?hl=en
8) E-Book Giveaway
If you have an e-book, give it away free, this can help build your mailing list and get more traffic to your site and offers. Ensure the e-book is of good value and that you'll have an up sell product to then make money from the subscribers at a later date.
9) CSS Website Design
When having your website designed it's best to use CSS to organize the layout of the site rather than using tables. CSS can power the layout using div tags instead of table tags. This will ensure your design is tableless. It will allow your textual content to have more weight when viewed by the search engines. If you have a designer, ensure you request "CSS Tabless Design" for your next website layout.
10) Submit To Directories
Most people already do this, but just in case you haven't, you should submit to directories. You can find a list of directories below:
http://strongestlinks.com/directories.php
The above list some of the better directories to submit to. By submitting to these directories you can acquire back links and more traffic to your site.
11) Tell a Friend
You can install a tell a friend script to your site that will allow users to "refer" your site to their friends and colleagues. The downside to this is that some spammers try to manipulate tell a friend scripts. Be sure the one you use actually has "image verification" to limit form manipulation; otherwise you may find spammers trying to use your form to send spam.
12) Search Engine Optimization
Always read up on the latest with optimizing your website for search engines. Some good forums to review for free tips are:
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12
http://forums.seochat.com/
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/
http://www.searchengineforums.com/apps/searchengine.forums/
I would join each of these forums or at least review the forums for the latest tips and strategies on search engine optimization.
13) Squidoo.com
Create a lense at squidoo.com, this is one of the latest fads.
14) Social bookmarking sites
Submit to each of these sites.
http://del.icio.us/ PageRank: 8/10
http://www.furl.net/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.simpy.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://del.icio.us/ PageRank: 8/10
http://www.backflip.com/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.blinklist.com/ PageRank: 6/10
http://bluedot.us/ PageRank: 6/10
http://de.lirio.us/bookmarks/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.diigo.com/user/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.shadows.com/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.markaboo.com/ PageRank: 5/10
http://ma.gnolia.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://linkagogo.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://netvouz.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.mister-wong.de/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.spurl.net/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.rawsugar.com/ PageRank: 6/10
http://www.stumbleupon.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.digg.com/ PageRank: 8/10
http://www.blogmarks.net/ PageRank: 7/10
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.netvouz.com/ PageRank: 7/10
http://www.taggly.com/ PageRank: 5/10
http://www.lookmarks.com/ PageRank: 5/10
http://socialbookmarking.org/ PageRank: 5/10
15) Article Promotion
Write articles are short reports and submit to ezinearticles.com,
goarticles.com, articlecity.com.
16) Site Explorer
Submit your sitemaps using Yahoo Site Explorer, similar format to
Google Webmaster Tools
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
17) Epinion.com
Post your opinion on products and services related to yours on
epinion.com
18) Alexa.com
Review popular websites on Alexa.com, and at the end of the message have your URL listed. It may not hyperlink automatically but a few people may still copy/paste into their address bar. Just make sure your post is really a review and not spam.
19) Newsletter Box
Always have a newsletter box on your website that will allow all visitors to subscribe for updates on your site. This can be a real winner, as you'll be able to market your product or service to these subscribers. You can use aweber.com, getresponse.com, constantcontact.com for the newsletter subscriptions.
20) Pay per Click search engines
I've listed this last since almost everyone does this, but I can't have a list of marketing tips without mentioning PPC. Google Adwords, Microsoft Ad Center and Yahoo Search Marketing are the big three. Other options are SearchFeed.com, Goclick.com.
For a comprehensive list of pay per click search engines see link below:
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/
Hopefully one of the marketing options mentioned caught your eye. I've used these various avenues to boost traffic to my sites on a regular basis. You may not get a flood of traffic overnight, but combining these methods can result in gradual increase traffic, and in some cases you can receive a tremendous boost. It's all about your efforts and sometimes having luck on your side helps as well :)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Twenty SEO Tips
Tip #1: Search Engine Friendly URLs
Always use search engine friendly URLs. Be sure to use hyphens and underscores in all your URLs and preferably have the URLs be the keyword that relates to the page. For example if the page is about web hosting, then the URL could be web-hosting or web_hosting.
Tip #2: Keyword Rich Domain Name
This may not be possible in many niche markets for the more popular keywords. Therefore you can focus on creating mini-sites that are keyword based. For example if your site is about web hosting, you can create mini-sites about web hosting but with a lesser known keyword such as "low cost web hosting".
Tip #3: Keyword research
It's important to do thorough research before deciding what keywords you'll focus on when optimizing your website. I've listed below some popular tools you can use
Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Overture Search Suggestion
http://inventory.overture.com/
Nichebot
http://www.nichebot.com
Word Tracker
http://www.wordtracker.com
Keyword Discovery
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
Google Adwords Keyword Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Good Keywords (Free keyword research Software application)
Download Link: http://www.softnik.com/download/gkwv2_setup.exe
Main website link: http://www.goodkeywords.com
Tip #4: IP Address
The sites you deemed most important, ensure they have unique ip addresses for each site. The reason this is important is many sites on a "shared" hosting service share the same ip address. If any of these sites have been banned by the search engines, it could affect your site's ranking or even result in your site being banned as well, since it is sharing the same ip address.
Tip #5: Site Map
Always create a site map for your site and submit the site map using Google's webmaster tools. A site map will allow the search engines to easily find all the pages within your website.
Link: http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/
Tip #6: Use Of H1 Tags
It's been shown that using H1 tags, and even H2 tags are good for optimization. Be sure you section your website's headlines in H1 tags. It's important you use CSS to power how the tags are displayed or the tag will be very big by default and could make your page look ugly. Using a css file will enable the tag to blend nicely with your design. Be sure your H1 tags are keyword rich.
Tip #7: Menu Links
For further on site optimization be sure that your menu links are keyword rich. Be creative with your menu text titles and have a few of them be actual keywords that relate to your website.
Tip #8: CSS Div Tags
Whenever possible ensure your site is created with CSS div tags instead of tables, as it will result in the search engine spider being able to reach your body text easier than being buried in table tags.
Review the tutorial below for more details
Link:
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/dreamweaver/basic-css-tableless/
Tip #9: Limiting Javascript
Try to limit the amount of Javascript used on your page, especially if it's being placed near the top of your website's source code. This will lower the relevance of your site's content, as the first thing the spider will see is Javascript code and not actual textual content, therefore you lose relevancy points since your main content is not loaded first on the page.
Tip #10: Meta Description
Always use meta tag description. Google actually pulls your meta tag description when spidering your website, and so does Yahoo and MSN. So it's very important that you have a well written and keyword rich meta tag description. For best results have your description less than 200 characters.
Tip #11: Meta Keywords
Not all search engines index meta keywords, but it's still a good idea to have a meta keyword tag just in case it's indexed or have some kind of relevance.
Tip #12: Unique Titles
Many scripts by default do not utilize unique titles for each page within the script or website, therefore your site is not optimized well for high rankings. Be sure that when using a script to power your website that you have the option to have a unique Title for each page, a unique meta description, and unique keywords.
Tip #13: Unique Body Content
Do not *ever* repeat the same content on too many pages. If this is done, your pages could be placed in Google's supplemental results database. This is not where you want to be, so therefore ensure that
each page within your website does have unique body content.
Tip #14: Link Building
You'll need to start having links pointing to you from relevant and popular websites. Research the websites that are your competitors who have achieved high page rank, and see what sites are linking to them, and if possible contact those websites to see if you can have a link as well. Do a search on Google for a keyword that relates to your website. Review the top ten websites, and input this tag in Google for each of the sites. Type in the search box link:www.sitename.com, replacing sitename.com with the site name you are researching. Review all the back links for that particular site and try to acquire link partnerships with the same sites as your competitors.
Tip #15: Paid Directory Submission
It's important to submit to popular web directories. I would recommend submitting to Yahoo Directory and perhaps Business.com and a few other paid directories such as Uncoverthenet.com and Gimpsy.com. This can help with relevancy points by having established paid directories having a link to your site. The fees for these directories range from $40-$299.
Tip #16: Social Bookmarking Sites
For quick indexing into the search engines, submitting to reddit.com and digg.com maybe a worth while task. It can allow the spiders to quickly visit your site and also result in some traffic. Ensure your article or reports are of good value, and never spam these sites. It's important to maintain a good relationship.
Tip #17: SEO for Firefox
This tool allows you to check PR, age of websites, backlinks, edu links, gov links, page links, technorati backlinks, alexa ranking, dmoz links, yahoo directory links and provides whois information. It's a great plugin tool for firefox.
Link: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html
Tip #18: Quality Hosting Service
This is just a general rule since you have to have as limited downtime as possible. Always research the hosting companies carefully, since downtime can result in a site that is dropped from the search engines if they try to spider and realize that the site cannot be accessed.
Tip #19: Robots.txt
Ensure you create a robots.txt file to restrict the content that can be indexed by the search engines. This can limit the "duplication" factor that can occur if you have more than one page that is similar.
See more here: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/robots-generator/
Tip #20: Link Purchasing
I'm listing this last since many people do not like to endorse it. I'm not endorsing it, but I will mention it. You can purchase links on power sites that can help with your page rank which can aid in better rankings *if* you have a well optimized website. You have to ensure the links you purchase are actually from respected sites and preferably within a related field.
See these resources
www.textlinkads.com
www.textlinkbrokers.com
If you utilize each of these steps it can help with your search engine optimization. These tips are meant to be an introduction to ways you can better optimize your website.
Always use search engine friendly URLs. Be sure to use hyphens and underscores in all your URLs and preferably have the URLs be the keyword that relates to the page. For example if the page is about web hosting, then the URL could be web-hosting or web_hosting.
Tip #2: Keyword Rich Domain Name
This may not be possible in many niche markets for the more popular keywords. Therefore you can focus on creating mini-sites that are keyword based. For example if your site is about web hosting, you can create mini-sites about web hosting but with a lesser known keyword such as "low cost web hosting".
Tip #3: Keyword research
It's important to do thorough research before deciding what keywords you'll focus on when optimizing your website. I've listed below some popular tools you can use
Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Overture Search Suggestion
http://inventory.overture.com/
Nichebot
http://www.nichebot.com
Word Tracker
http://www.wordtracker.com
Keyword Discovery
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
Google Adwords Keyword Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Good Keywords (Free keyword research Software application)
Download Link: http://www.softnik.com/download/gkwv2_setup.exe
Main website link: http://www.goodkeywords.com
Tip #4: IP Address
The sites you deemed most important, ensure they have unique ip addresses for each site. The reason this is important is many sites on a "shared" hosting service share the same ip address. If any of these sites have been banned by the search engines, it could affect your site's ranking or even result in your site being banned as well, since it is sharing the same ip address.
Tip #5: Site Map
Always create a site map for your site and submit the site map using Google's webmaster tools. A site map will allow the search engines to easily find all the pages within your website.
Link: http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/
Tip #6: Use Of H1 Tags
It's been shown that using H1 tags, and even H2 tags are good for optimization. Be sure you section your website's headlines in H1 tags. It's important you use CSS to power how the tags are displayed or the tag will be very big by default and could make your page look ugly. Using a css file will enable the tag to blend nicely with your design. Be sure your H1 tags are keyword rich.
Tip #7: Menu Links
For further on site optimization be sure that your menu links are keyword rich. Be creative with your menu text titles and have a few of them be actual keywords that relate to your website.
Tip #8: CSS Div Tags
Whenever possible ensure your site is created with CSS div tags instead of tables, as it will result in the search engine spider being able to reach your body text easier than being buried in table tags.
Review the tutorial below for more details
Link:
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/dreamweaver/basic-css-tableless/
Tip #9: Limiting Javascript
Try to limit the amount of Javascript used on your page, especially if it's being placed near the top of your website's source code. This will lower the relevance of your site's content, as the first thing the spider will see is Javascript code and not actual textual content, therefore you lose relevancy points since your main content is not loaded first on the page.
Tip #10: Meta Description
Always use meta tag description. Google actually pulls your meta tag description when spidering your website, and so does Yahoo and MSN. So it's very important that you have a well written and keyword rich meta tag description. For best results have your description less than 200 characters.
Tip #11: Meta Keywords
Not all search engines index meta keywords, but it's still a good idea to have a meta keyword tag just in case it's indexed or have some kind of relevance.
Tip #12: Unique Titles
Many scripts by default do not utilize unique titles for each page within the script or website, therefore your site is not optimized well for high rankings. Be sure that when using a script to power your website that you have the option to have a unique Title for each page, a unique meta description, and unique keywords.
Tip #13: Unique Body Content
Do not *ever* repeat the same content on too many pages. If this is done, your pages could be placed in Google's supplemental results database. This is not where you want to be, so therefore ensure that
each page within your website does have unique body content.
Tip #14: Link Building
You'll need to start having links pointing to you from relevant and popular websites. Research the websites that are your competitors who have achieved high page rank, and see what sites are linking to them, and if possible contact those websites to see if you can have a link as well. Do a search on Google for a keyword that relates to your website. Review the top ten websites, and input this tag in Google for each of the sites. Type in the search box link:www.sitename.com, replacing sitename.com with the site name you are researching. Review all the back links for that particular site and try to acquire link partnerships with the same sites as your competitors.
Tip #15: Paid Directory Submission
It's important to submit to popular web directories. I would recommend submitting to Yahoo Directory and perhaps Business.com and a few other paid directories such as Uncoverthenet.com and Gimpsy.com. This can help with relevancy points by having established paid directories having a link to your site. The fees for these directories range from $40-$299.
Tip #16: Social Bookmarking Sites
For quick indexing into the search engines, submitting to reddit.com and digg.com maybe a worth while task. It can allow the spiders to quickly visit your site and also result in some traffic. Ensure your article or reports are of good value, and never spam these sites. It's important to maintain a good relationship.
Tip #17: SEO for Firefox
This tool allows you to check PR, age of websites, backlinks, edu links, gov links, page links, technorati backlinks, alexa ranking, dmoz links, yahoo directory links and provides whois information. It's a great plugin tool for firefox.
Link: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html
Tip #18: Quality Hosting Service
This is just a general rule since you have to have as limited downtime as possible. Always research the hosting companies carefully, since downtime can result in a site that is dropped from the search engines if they try to spider and realize that the site cannot be accessed.
Tip #19: Robots.txt
Ensure you create a robots.txt file to restrict the content that can be indexed by the search engines. This can limit the "duplication" factor that can occur if you have more than one page that is similar.
See more here: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/robots-generator/
Tip #20: Link Purchasing
I'm listing this last since many people do not like to endorse it. I'm not endorsing it, but I will mention it. You can purchase links on power sites that can help with your page rank which can aid in better rankings *if* you have a well optimized website. You have to ensure the links you purchase are actually from respected sites and preferably within a related field.
See these resources
www.textlinkads.com
www.textlinkbrokers.com
If you utilize each of these steps it can help with your search engine optimization. These tips are meant to be an introduction to ways you can better optimize your website.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
How to create a sitemap
A sitemap of a website is similar to the table of contents of a book. Sitemaps are important because it guides web surfers to the particular part of the website they have a point of interest in. With it they would save time following links and get right to the point instead.
Sitemaps are also where search engines look at if somebody is looking for a particular keyword or phrase. If you have a site map, you can most likely be searched.
Creating a sitemap, now with software technology surging in, is relatively easier than before. You need not be a programming guru to be one. All need is a notepad, a program editor, and some patience. Here’s how you do it:
Create the listing on a notepad.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a notepad. Any word processing program will do. First off, make sure to type in all the parts and pieces of your website. Include all pages and all links you have. Create it as if you listing the contents of your book. Make a draft first. You’re sure no to miss something out this way.
Create a new page for your sitemap.
You can insert the sitemap on your website on one of its pages or you can create an entirely different page for it. Using your notepad, incorporate all tags necessary to it to make another webpage. Open up your website creator program and tag your sitemap using it. If you have created your website on your own, this will be easy for you.
Create a link for the sitemap.
You won’t be able to view the sitemap if you won’t put a link for it, of course. Create the link on the front page of your website so that visitors can view it right away and be directed appropriately.
Check your work.
It is important to validate the functionality of the links you created on the sitemap. Test each and every one in there and if you get an error, be sure to fix it accurately. Run through every single page to make sure that all are accounted for.
Upload your work.
Place the sitemap now on your live browser and double check it. It should function as smoothly as the dry run. Error should be minimal at this stage since you already have verified it locally.
The steps provided herewith is the manual way of creating a sitemap. These days, if you search hard enough on the web, you will find online programs that will do all these work for you. All you have to do it type in the URL or the link of your website and they will create the sitemap with click of a button.
Of course that method is generic. All of you who have created their sitemap that way will have an end product that is all the same, plus there’s that possibility that something else will be inserted in there too. Then again, the process is less taxing and way, way simpler.
But if you want a more personalized output, and you are pretty good with computers and programming yourself, better make one of your own. And since you made your website anyway, creating sitemap is just like creating any other page on the website. Other than you’ll know for sure the links are accurate, you can organize the links the way you prefer it to be. Major parts of the site are emphasized compared to less significant. This is important especially if you are selling products or offering services online.
Sitemap is vital to a website. People search the web a lot for something. If your website has what that particular person is looking for, and your sitemap reports it, then you have a new customer looking at your items. Not only that, they will see some other things up for sale that they might be interested in as well.
Sitemaps, be it generated by a program automatically or you made it yourself, presents the same purpose. That is to lead your visitors to where they’re likely headed, and for you to be seen on the World Wide Web through search spiders. So with these, make sure your website has a sitemap of its own, lest make one.
Sitemaps are also where search engines look at if somebody is looking for a particular keyword or phrase. If you have a site map, you can most likely be searched.
Creating a sitemap, now with software technology surging in, is relatively easier than before. You need not be a programming guru to be one. All need is a notepad, a program editor, and some patience. Here’s how you do it:
Create the listing on a notepad.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a notepad. Any word processing program will do. First off, make sure to type in all the parts and pieces of your website. Include all pages and all links you have. Create it as if you listing the contents of your book. Make a draft first. You’re sure no to miss something out this way.
Create a new page for your sitemap.
You can insert the sitemap on your website on one of its pages or you can create an entirely different page for it. Using your notepad, incorporate all tags necessary to it to make another webpage. Open up your website creator program and tag your sitemap using it. If you have created your website on your own, this will be easy for you.
Create a link for the sitemap.
You won’t be able to view the sitemap if you won’t put a link for it, of course. Create the link on the front page of your website so that visitors can view it right away and be directed appropriately.
Check your work.
It is important to validate the functionality of the links you created on the sitemap. Test each and every one in there and if you get an error, be sure to fix it accurately. Run through every single page to make sure that all are accounted for.
Upload your work.
Place the sitemap now on your live browser and double check it. It should function as smoothly as the dry run. Error should be minimal at this stage since you already have verified it locally.
The steps provided herewith is the manual way of creating a sitemap. These days, if you search hard enough on the web, you will find online programs that will do all these work for you. All you have to do it type in the URL or the link of your website and they will create the sitemap with click of a button.
Of course that method is generic. All of you who have created their sitemap that way will have an end product that is all the same, plus there’s that possibility that something else will be inserted in there too. Then again, the process is less taxing and way, way simpler.
But if you want a more personalized output, and you are pretty good with computers and programming yourself, better make one of your own. And since you made your website anyway, creating sitemap is just like creating any other page on the website. Other than you’ll know for sure the links are accurate, you can organize the links the way you prefer it to be. Major parts of the site are emphasized compared to less significant. This is important especially if you are selling products or offering services online.
Sitemap is vital to a website. People search the web a lot for something. If your website has what that particular person is looking for, and your sitemap reports it, then you have a new customer looking at your items. Not only that, they will see some other things up for sale that they might be interested in as well.
Sitemaps, be it generated by a program automatically or you made it yourself, presents the same purpose. That is to lead your visitors to where they’re likely headed, and for you to be seen on the World Wide Web through search spiders. So with these, make sure your website has a sitemap of its own, lest make one.
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