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Added for You - Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 1: Keyword Selection
If you are a true entrepreneur then you are a problem solver. You see a desire of a consumer of a product or service and you ask yourself; can I produce that and still retain a profit? If you can produce it and you are pretty sure you can make money doing it then you are well on your way.This takes thought, creativity and innovation, there is no other way? Sure you can copy others who have done similar and learn from them and their successes, challenges and failures and create even a better way of doing it. After all an entrepreneur is an innovator by trait and a problem solver by profession.Every good entrepreneur can smell new markets and see the money flowing and feel the desires of customer leaning a certain way or longing for that perfect service or product to help them. A good entrepreneur can see this and feel it almost as second nature. How do they do it?Well they put themselves in the customers shoes and you can do this too. Simply think of the hassles in life you deal with and listen to others and then figure out how to solve these issues. Figure out how to find ways to make money in solving
Tips & Tricks
There are no real "tricks" to uncovering the keywords you should target however there are a few tips. A few pointers that will help you maximize your keyword selection:
Think like a layman. Just because you know your industry terms doesn't mean that everyone does. Don't just think of the words you use to describe your products/services, think of the words you would use if you knew nothing about it other than the fact that you needed it. You may want to recruit a friend and have them run some searches for you.
Think like an expert. On the other side of the coin, there may be phrases used specifically in your industry that people "in the know" would use to search for your products and/or services. Be sure to look into these phrases. You just may find some hidden gems that no one else has thought to target.
Don't target too many phrases. Some SEOs and webmasters target dozens and sometimes even hundreds of phrases. The end result, they often miss the ones they most wanted to attain. Keeping yourself and your keyword list focused will keep your site focused. If your site is focused you'll rank higher for the phrases that will produce the highest return on investment.
Testing
Test your phrases. If there is any debate about whether a search phrase is worth targeting it's often a good idea to test the conversions through pay-per-click engines. Set up an account with a PPC engine and bid on the phrases that you would like to target.
You have to remember that the PPC engines do not provide for the same amount of traffic as the natural engines. Test the initial phrases, test al
Having a Myspace account is cool on its own but what is even better is the fact that you are able to personalize the account so it best suites you. Such accounts are great to have as a lot of people see it as a way to express themselves freely, but at the same time it is confidential. A Myspace is for anyone to have, if you have the time to create one then do so. But make sure you have the time because it is a hard decision choosing the Myspace background and layouts that you want.There are so many different Myspace backgrounds to choose from, there are pictures like flags, popular brand names, animals, celebrities and much more. Or you can even just get effects like different patterns and colors that will look great on your account and tell a lot about the kind of person you are. Myspace backgrounds include topics like baby, cute, Disney, cartoons, friends, holiday, money, music, stars, flashy, colors and more. You just have a look at them all and decide which you like best.When you sign in to your Myspace account there are options that you can choose that will let you change your Myspace backgrounds, layout
Of course all website's fluctuate up and down however well optimized sites will spend more time on the upper end of the rankings than poorly optimized or spammy sites which may see high rankings but which will lose those rankings over time.
The Ten Steps We Will Go Through Are:
Keyword Selection
Content
Site Structure
Optimization
Internal Linking
Human Testing
Submissions
Link Building
Monitoring
The Extras
Step One - Keyword Selection
Arguably, keyword selection is the single most important stage in the entire optimization process. If you do not choose the correct keyword phrases you will not maximize your ROI on this campaign. I mention ROI and use it as a reminder that keyword selection is not necessarily about looking for the most searched phrases. A profitable optimization is one which produces the greatest return on investment for the time and money that are available to put towards it.
Bigger Is Not Always Better
If you are a web designer in Seattle who has just started your own business, you could make "web design" the targeted keyword phrase for your site as it certainly has the highest number of searches with 707,962 in September 2004 according to the "Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool". If you have thousands of dollars and many months to dedicated just to attaining those rankings it could be done however, would that be the best use of your time? Alternatively you could target "seattle web site design" with 5,070 searches in September. A Google link check shows the number of links for the top three competitors for the Seattle search had 132, 21, and 47 respectively whereas for "web design" the top three had 18,700, 5,420, and 1,310 incoming links each.
With a good site you would get more work than you could handle with 5,070 searches on Overture alone if you were ranking well on the major search engines. This would clearly provide the highest return on investment for the small business owner who most certainly does not have the time and money available to target "web design" and who wouldn't have the manpower to take advantage of the rankings even if they were attained.
This is an extreme example however it clearly illustrates that sometimes the phrase with the highest number of searches is not necessarily the best target for your business.
Phrases That Sell
Another consideration you will want to make when choosing your keyword phrases is whether or not they are "buy phrases". Phrases with a high number of searches that are not "buy phrases" will tend to bring a lot of traffic, however the conversion ratio will be far lower. Should you choose to target "buy phrases" you may not get the same number of visitors however your ratio of visitors to sales will be much higher.
In this example let's assume you are the marketing director for a well-known accounting company. There will be many choices you can make for your targeted keyword phrase. The top searched phrases in September 2004 that were accounting-related are:
"accounting" with 156,095 searches
"accounting software" with 54,621 searches
"accounting job" with 32,015 searches
"accounting services" with 19,260 searches
"accounting firm" with 13,089 searches
Many might go with their gut instinct and attempt to target "accounting". The problem with this phrase (other than the competition for it) is that the people doing that search are not necessarily even looking for an accounting firm. They may be accounting students, small business owners not interested in hiring an accountant but just looking for tax information, etc. "Accounting software" and "accounting job" are irrelevant, which leaves us with "accounting services" and "accounting firm" as the two main options.
From this point an evaluation of competition should be performed and the pros and cons of making each the primary target should be weighed based on the amount of work it will take to attain the phrase vs. how many searches there are for that phrase.
Often promotions that target multiple "buy phrases" will end up far more successful that those targeting phrases based solely on the number of searches due to the increased conversions and generally decreased competition.
Tools To Use
Armed now with knowledge on how to recognize and choose between different phrases there remains only one question, how do you know which phrases are even searched? Fortunately there are a couple great resources out there to help you find out how many searches are performed for specific phrases. They Are:
The Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
A decent tool for researching keyword phrases. It indicates which phrases had the highest numbers of searches on Overture during the previous month. The biggest weakness it has, as far as applying it to the natural search engines, is that Overture counts singular and plural as the same and also corrects misspelling so the totals are all lumped together in this tool whereas on the natural engines they are considered differently.
WordTracker
WordTracker is very similar to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool except that this tool differentiates between plural and singular searches, does not correct spelling (i.e. it gives the number of searches for misspellings rather than correcting them and giving a total for correct and misspelled words) and gives the results in predicted numbers of searches over all the engines per day rather than just one engine over a month.
They have a great free trial that doesn't give you as many results but which can be very useful.
When using these tools I recommend beginning with the Overture Search term Suggestion Tool and once you've narrowed down your choices, switch to WordTracker to insure that you're getting the right information in regards to tense (singular vs. plural) and also that the numbers match. Sometimes you will find that the numbers are completely different from each tool. In this event you will have to use your best judgment.
Don't forget to check misspellings when using WordTracker!
Tips & Tricks
There are no real "tricks" to uncovering the keywords you should target however there are a few tips. A few pointers that will help you maximize your keyword selection:
Think like a layman. Just because you know your industry terms doesn't mean that everyone does. Don't just think of the words you use to describe your products/services, think of the words you would use if you knew nothing about it other than the fact that you needed it. You may want to recruit a friend and have them run some searches for you.
Think like an expert. On the other side of the coin, there may be phrases used specifically in your industry that people "in the know" would use to search for your products and/or services. Be sure to look into these phrases. You just may find some hidden gems that no one else has thought to target.
Don't target too many phrases. Some SEOs and webmasters target dozens and sometimes even hundreds of phrases. The end result, they often miss the ones they most wanted to attain. Keeping yourself and your keyword list focused will keep your site focused. If your site is focused you'll rank higher for the phrases that will produce the highest return on investment.
Testing
Test your phrases. If there is any debate about whether a search phrase is worth targeting it's often a good idea to test the conversions through pay-per-click engines. Set up an account with a PPC engine and bid on the phrases that you would like to target.
You have to remember that the PPC engines do not provide for the same amount of traffic as the natural engines. Test the initial phrases, test alt
Many people dream of quitting their day job, and having their entire income generated from the Internet. Sadly, without the right information, or assistance, many people try to find opportunities on their own, take some bad advice, become disillusioned, and end up giving up ever being able to have their own online business.There is money to be made over the Internet, and it is possible to succeed - but you won’t become rich over night. It will take perseverance, determination, and time to get noticeable results. One of the easiest ways to create your online empire is to learn how to become an affiliate marketer. Before we get started, there is one fallacy that must be noted by anyone just starting out in affiliate marketing, or any type of online business for that matter.Working online is hard work. It is not all about setting up a website in haste, throwing in a few affiliate links, and making money while you sleep. Online business does not work that way, especially when you are just starting out. Anyone who claims that Internet businesses do so, is likely to be trying to take advantage of you.Additio
With a good site you would get more work than you could handle with 5,070 searches on Overture alone if you were ranking well on the major search engines. This would clearly provide the highest return on investment for the small business owner who most certainly does not have the time and money available to target "web design" and who wouldn't have the manpower to take advantage of the rankings even if they were attained.
This is an extreme example however it clearly illustrates that sometimes the phrase with the highest number of searches is not necessarily the best target for your business.
Phrases That Sell
Another consideration you will want to make when choosing your keyword phrases is whether or not they are "buy phrases". Phrases with a high number of searches that are not "buy phrases" will tend to bring a lot of traffic, however the conversion ratio will be far lower. Should you choose to target "buy phrases" you may not get the same number of visitors however your ratio of visitors to sales will be much higher.
In this example let's assume you are the marketing director for a well-known accounting company. There will be many choices you can make for your targeted keyword phrase. The top searched phrases in September 2004 that were accounting-related are:
"accounting" with 156,095 searches
"accounting software" with 54,621 searches
"accounting job" with 32,015 searches
"accounting services" with 19,260 searches
"accounting firm" with 13,089 searches
Many might go with their gut instinct and attempt to target "accounting". The problem with this phrase (other than the competition for it) is that the people doing that search are not necessarily even looking for an accounting firm. They may be accounting students, small business owners not interested in hiring an accountant but just looking for tax information, etc. "Accounting software" and "accounting job" are irrelevant, which leaves us with "accounting services" and "accounting firm" as the two main options.
From this point an evaluation of competition should be performed and the pros and cons of making each the primary target should be weighed based on the amount of work it will take to attain the phrase vs. how many searches there are for that phrase.
Often promotions that target multiple "buy phrases" will end up far more successful that those targeting phrases based solely on the number of searches due to the increased conversions and generally decreased competition.
Tools To Use
Armed now with knowledge on how to recognize and choose between different phrases there remains only one question, how do you know which phrases are even searched? Fortunately there are a couple great resources out there to help you find out how many searches are performed for specific phrases. They Are:
The Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
A decent tool for researching keyword phrases. It indicates which phrases had the highest numbers of searches on Overture during the previous month. The biggest weakness it has, as far as applying it to the natural search engines, is that Overture counts singular and plural as the same and also corrects misspelling so the totals are all lumped together in this tool whereas on the natural engines they are considered differently.
WordTracker
WordTracker is very similar to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool except that this tool differentiates between plural and singular searches, does not correct spelling (i.e. it gives the number of searches for misspellings rather than correcting them and giving a total for correct and misspelled words) and gives the results in predicted numbers of searches over all the engines per day rather than just one engine over a month.
They have a great free trial that doesn't give you as many results but which can be very useful.
When using these tools I recommend beginning with the Overture Search term Suggestion Tool and once you've narrowed down your choices, switch to WordTracker to insure that you're getting the right information in regards to tense (singular vs. plural) and also that the numbers match. Sometimes you will find that the numbers are completely different from each tool. In this event you will have to use your best judgment.
Don't forget to check misspellings when using WordTracker!
Tips & Tricks
There are no real "tricks" to uncovering the keywords you should target however there are a few tips. A few pointers that will help you maximize your keyword selection:
Think like a layman. Just because you know your industry terms doesn't mean that everyone does. Don't just think of the words you use to describe your products/services, think of the words you would use if you knew nothing about it other than the fact that you needed it. You may want to recruit a friend and have them run some searches for you.
Think like an expert. On the other side of the coin, there may be phrases used specifically in your industry that people "in the know" would use to search for your products and/or services. Be sure to look into these phrases. You just may find some hidden gems that no one else has thought to target.
Don't target too many phrases. Some SEOs and webmasters target dozens and sometimes even hundreds of phrases. The end result, they often miss the ones they most wanted to attain. Keeping yourself and your keyword list focused will keep your site focused. If your site is focused you'll rank higher for the phrases that will produce the highest return on investment.
Testing
Test your phrases. If there is any debate about whether a search phrase is worth targeting it's often a good idea to test the conversions through pay-per-click engines. Set up an account with a PPC engine and bid on the phrases that you would like to target.
You have to remember that the PPC engines do not provide for the same amount of traffic as the natural engines. Test the initial phrases, test al
If you’re really interested in using your e-newsletter to add value then you’re probably already measuring it in terms of conversions. You might be calling those conversions opening rate, click-through rate, seminar signups, sales, whitepaper downloads or a range of other metrics. Regardless of how you measure conversions you’re almost certainly trying to improve your results and testing is the only way to consistently do that.What’s more, if you’re like most people you’d be happy to improve those conversions a few percentage points on each e-newsletter. Well, what if there was a way to double or triple the number of conversions you receive?Impossible? There is way and the secret is to vastly improve your ability to test e-newsletter elements efficiently and effectively. The way to do that is Taghuchi design.As a case study let’s consider putting a sales panel in your next e-newsletter to promote a new product or service. In trying to maximise conversions you have lots of options that you could test. You could test different subject lines, panel on left or right, top or botto
In this example let's assume you are the marketing director for a well-known accounting company. There will be many choices you can make for your targeted keyword phrase. The top searched phrases in September 2004 that were accounting-related are:
"accounting" with 156,095 searches
"accounting software" with 54,621 searches
"accounting job" with 32,015 searches
"accounting services" with 19,260 searches
"accounting firm" with 13,089 searches
Many might go with their gut instinct and attempt to target "accounting". The problem with this phrase (other than the competition for it) is that the people doing that search are not necessarily even looking for an accounting firm. They may be accounting students, small business owners not interested in hiring an accountant but just looking for tax information, etc. "Accounting software" and "accounting job" are irrelevant, which leaves us with "accounting services" and "accounting firm" as the two main options.
From this point an evaluation of competition should be performed and the pros and cons of making each the primary target should be weighed based on the amount of work it will take to attain the phrase vs. how many searches there are for that phrase.
Often promotions that target multiple "buy phrases" will end up far more successful that those targeting phrases based solely on the number of searches due to the increased conversions and generally decreased competition.
Tools To Use
Armed now with knowledge on how to recognize and choose between different phrases there remains only one question, how do you know which phrases are even searched? Fortunately there are a couple great resources out there to help you find out how many searches are performed for specific phrases. They Are:
The Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
A decent tool for researching keyword phrases. It indicates which phrases had the highest numbers of searches on Overture during the previous month. The biggest weakness it has, as far as applying it to the natural search engines, is that Overture counts singular and plural as the same and also corrects misspelling so the totals are all lumped together in this tool whereas on the natural engines they are considered differently.
WordTracker
WordTracker is very similar to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool except that this tool differentiates between plural and singular searches, does not correct spelling (i.e. it gives the number of searches for misspellings rather than correcting them and giving a total for correct and misspelled words) and gives the results in predicted numbers of searches over all the engines per day rather than just one engine over a month.
They have a great free trial that doesn't give you as many results but which can be very useful.
When using these tools I recommend beginning with the Overture Search term Suggestion Tool and once you've narrowed down your choices, switch to WordTracker to insure that you're getting the right information in regards to tense (singular vs. plural) and also that the numbers match. Sometimes you will find that the numbers are completely different from each tool. In this event you will have to use your best judgment.
Don't forget to check misspellings when using WordTracker!
Tips & Tricks
There are no real "tricks" to uncovering the keywords you should target however there are a few tips. A few pointers that will help you maximize your keyword selection:
Think like a layman. Just because you know your industry terms doesn't mean that everyone does. Don't just think of the words you use to describe your products/services, think of the words you would use if you knew nothing about it other than the fact that you needed it. You may want to recruit a friend and have them run some searches for you.
Think like an expert. On the other side of the coin, there may be phrases used specifically in your industry that people "in the know" would use to search for your products and/or services. Be sure to look into these phrases. You just may find some hidden gems that no one else has thought to target.
Don't target too many phrases. Some SEOs and webmasters target dozens and sometimes even hundreds of phrases. The end result, they often miss the ones they most wanted to attain. Keeping yourself and your keyword list focused will keep your site focused. If your site is focused you'll rank higher for the phrases that will produce the highest return on investment.
Testing
Test your phrases. If there is any debate about whether a search phrase is worth targeting it's often a good idea to test the conversions through pay-per-click engines. Set up an account with a PPC engine and bid on the phrases that you would like to target.
You have to remember that the PPC engines do not provide for the same amount of traffic as the natural engines. Test the initial phrases, test al
Having your own business does not mean that you will spend your time being idle. On the contrary, you’ll have more responsibility to get your business off the ground and running than you would have working for a boss. There is a difference in spending your energy working for yourself rather than for an employer. You will find it more rewarding when you start to reap the rewards rather than your boss. Therefore you will find you have more energy, desire and determination to put into your business. There are numerous, legitimate opportunities in the market that can be filled by an enthusiastic entrepreneur. Network marketing, for one, can be very lucrative and can become a great way of making your living. There are so many opportunities offered online for starting a business. Once you have made the decision to start working on your own and start a home based business you are on the road to freedom. The hardest part in starting a home business is taking the plunge. Once you do, you will experience freedom from the office routine and peak hour traffic and will ultimately have financial freedom as well. There are many opti
The Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
A decent tool for researching keyword phrases. It indicates which phrases had the highest numbers of searches on Overture during the previous month. The biggest weakness it has, as far as applying it to the natural search engines, is that Overture counts singular and plural as the same and also corrects misspelling so the totals are all lumped together in this tool whereas on the natural engines they are considered differently.
WordTracker
WordTracker is very similar to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool except that this tool differentiates between plural and singular searches, does not correct spelling (i.e. it gives the number of searches for misspellings rather than correcting them and giving a total for correct and misspelled words) and gives the results in predicted numbers of searches over all the engines per day rather than just one engine over a month.
They have a great free trial that doesn't give you as many results but which can be very useful.
When using these tools I recommend beginning with the Overture Search term Suggestion Tool and once you've narrowed down your choices, switch to WordTracker to insure that you're getting the right information in regards to tense (singular vs. plural) and also that the numbers match. Sometimes you will find that the numbers are completely different from each tool. In this event you will have to use your best judgment.
Don't forget to check misspellings when using WordTracker!
Tips & Tricks
There are no real "tricks" to uncovering the keywords you should target however there are a few tips. A few pointers that will help you maximize your keyword selection:
Think like a layman. Just because you know your industry terms doesn't mean that everyone does. Don't just think of the words you use to describe your products/services, think of the words you would use if you knew nothing about it other than the fact that you needed it. You may want to recruit a friend and have them run some searches for you.
Think like an expert. On the other side of the coin, there may be phrases used specifically in your industry that people "in the know" would use to search for your products and/or services. Be sure to look into these phrases. You just may find some hidden gems that no one else has thought to target.
Don't target too many phrases. Some SEOs and webmasters target dozens and sometimes even hundreds of phrases. The end result, they often miss the ones they most wanted to attain. Keeping yourself and your keyword list focused will keep your site focused. If your site is focused you'll rank higher for the phrases that will produce the highest return on investment.
Testing
Test your phrases. If there is any debate about whether a search phrase is worth targeting it's often a good idea to test the conversions through pay-per-click engines. Set up an account with a PPC engine and bid on the phrases that you would like to target.
You have to remember that the PPC engines do not provide for the same amount of traffic as the natural engines. Test the initial phrases, test al
Once upon a time, head hunters were no more than common cannibals. Some people still view them that way, but executive recruiters are a vital link in a chain that keeps major enterprises functioning well. The top positions at any organization dictate the fortunes of the company, the shareholders and the employees ... and often the communities in which they are located. A good executive head hunter can ensure that new company executives have the skills required for the position and the challenges ahead. He can also ensure that the right executive is chosen, one whose style will flourish in the specific environment of that company. However, modern executive recruiters face challenges to be effective. I caught up with Esther Barzel, co-owner of the Directory of Executive Recruiters and Head Hunters Site. Q: What are the main challenges of executive head hunters in today's business climate? A: To start with, the geographic net has become much wider. A head hunter in , say, New York City or Toronto, can no longer rely on finding the right candidate right in town. I
Tips & Tricks
There are no real "tricks" to uncovering the keywords you should target however there are a few tips. A few pointers that will help you maximize your keyword selection:
Think like a layman. Just because you know your industry terms doesn't mean that everyone does. Don't just think of the words you use to describe your products/services, think of the words you would use if you knew nothing about it other than the fact that you needed it. You may want to recruit a friend and have them run some searches for you.
Think like an expert. On the other side of the coin, there may be phrases used specifically in your industry that people "in the know" would use to search for your products and/or services. Be sure to look into these phrases. You just may find some hidden gems that no one else has thought to target.
Don't target too many phrases. Some SEOs and webmasters target dozens and sometimes even hundreds of phrases. The end result, they often miss the ones they most wanted to attain. Keeping yourself and your keyword list focused will keep your site focused. If your site is focused you'll rank higher for the phrases that will produce the highest return on investment.
Testing
Test your phrases. If there is any debate about whether a search phrase is worth targeting it's often a good idea to test the conversions through pay-per-click engines. Set up an account with a PPC engine and bid on the phrases that you would like to target.
You have to remember that the PPC engines do not provide for the same amount of traffic as the natural engines. Test the initial phrases, test alternative phrases, and see which produce the best results. Something else to keep in mind is that PPC are not natural engines. If your ROI is not as high on more costly phrases that doesn't mean they won't produce the higher return on the natural engines where a top ranking does not cost money per click.
In the end you will have confirmed a solid list of keyword phrases and if the PPC campaign is providing a good return on investment you might as well keep it running and enjoy the "bonus" traffic that it provides.
Next Week
Next week in part two of our "Ten Steps To an Optimized Website" series we will be covering content. This will cover everything from the optimization of existing content to the creation of new content for your website.
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