Jan 02 2010

The Power of Social Media Marketing and SEO

Category: SEO Services, SEO Traffic, Social Media Optimization, seo company tampa — admin @ 12:25 pm
SEO Company Tampa SEO Services Tampa

SEO Company Tampa SEO Services Tampa

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) have always been important in getting traffic, awareness, prestige, and roping potential customers from remote areas of the world. Today, SEO is however, not the only means of promoting one’s business online. The social media marketing (SMM) technique has become quite popular where content rules the roost in the form of a blog, article, or press release. The combination of SEO and SMM is quite remarkable in promoting the site, communicating with business associates, and generating leads.

Importance of SMM in SEO – Link Popularity

SEO done successfully gives rise to top ranking in search engines. Often, experts say that the two aspects are interdependent. SEO requires websites to have quality, inbound links. Link programs done in SEO are forced and boring. Many a times, the websites don’t even answer the mails. However, there are other methods to generate quality links for link popularity – which is so vital in SEO.

A new website or a start up online hub would face a lot of difficulty in generating quality links without having much experience in the field as SEO link building requires testimonials, prestigious history to back the claim.

In social media network, an efficient entrepreneur would just have to publish an article and get it posted in the homepage of Digg. Within minutes, thousands of traffic flows in to the site to take a quick look at the website. So, if you wish to have quality links from good, authority websites, you can do so by social bookmarking.

Traffic – Quality Users

Often SEO generates traffic and large number of users can throng a particular website when it attains top ranking for specific keywords. But, many users here are just curious onlookers who only wish to browse the site out of curiosity.

This aspect sharply differs from SMM does to your website. The traffic who get information from social media sites, are in general, quality traffic who are interested to either trade business with the site or buy a product. These users come to the site after reading some good articles of your website. Either they require more information, or want to actively associate themselves with the site.

Lastly, Generating Awareness

Social media networking sites are very important today as they have a lot of valuable resources to share with people. Getting listed in SMM in turn would help you get a good ranking in search engine result pages (SERP) in no time. On the other hand, if you were to depend on SEO methods only, you’d have to wait for 3-6 months to get the results.

As the PR value of the social media networking sites are quite good, you are sure to get a good PR value yourself if you were to get a link from such a site.

So, a blend of both SEO techniques with SMM can work wonders for your site in promoting it to reach to quality traffic. In short, the power of the combined effort of SEO and SMM is quite formidable indeed.

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Dec 25 2009

Page Speed – A New Google Ranking Factor

Category: SEO Traffic — admin @ 12:32 pm

Over the course of 2009, a consistent theme that Google has been involved with is that of speed. In announcement after announcement, Google has talked about the importance of speed on the web, and how the company wants to do everything it can to make the web a faster place. Has it occurred to you that how fast your page loads may have a direct effect on how your site ranks in Google?

Don’t worry, it hasn’t had an impact…yet. In an interview with WebProNews, Google’s Matt Cutts told us that speed may soon be a ranking factor.

“Historically, we haven’t had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast,” says Cutts. “It should be a good experience, and so it’s sort of fair to say that if you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don’t want that as much.”

Page Speed performs several tests on a site’s web server configuration and front-end code. These tests are based on a set of best practices known to enhance web page performance. Webmasters who run Page Speed on their pages get a set of scores for each page, as well as helpful suggestions on how to improve its performance.

Why should you use Page Speed?

Make your site faster.
Keep Internet users engaged with your site.
Reduce your bandwidth and hosting costs.
Improve the web!

Please Install Page Speed  - http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/download.html

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Nov 09 2009

5 Free Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic

Category: SEO Traffic — admin @ 12:24 pm

don’t know about you, but when I first entered the world of internet marketing I thought I could just submit my newly finished website to a few search engines, then sit back as the visitors flocked to my site.  

I imagined that people would arrive on my website, as if by magic, purchase goods, and perhaps come back again for more. 

A week or so later I came down to earth with a big bump. 

I realised that it would take a bit of time and effort to see the results that I was dreaming about! 

Since my reality check, I have learned all about the weird and wonderful ways of internet marketing. 

In this article I will tell you about my top 5 free ways of increasing website traffic. 

All these methods are completely free and if you spend some time on them you will find that they work consistently.

 (1) Writing Articles

 Writing an article on a subject related to your website and getting that article published has two major benefits: 

  • People who are interested in your article will read it and often click on the URL in your resource box find out more. This gets you another free targeted visitor. Targeted, because that reader wants to find out more on the subject of your article, which is hopefully related to the subject of your website.
  • Every publisher of your article must also publish your “resource box”. Adding a resource box with your URL to all of your articles will increase the number of links leading back to your website, which in turn helps to increase your search engine positionFor a list of directories to submit your article to, see http://www.homebiz-direct.com/articleWriting.html 

(2) Forum Networking 

There are many discussion forums on the internet, on every topic you could possibly imagine. 

Most discussion boards allow posters to attach a “Signature” with their post containing additional information about themselves, such as their name, URL and sometimes even an advertisement. 

By visiting a few forums regularly and participating in the discussions, asking and answering questions, you can build up trust with other forum members, whilst at the same time getting free exposure for your website. 

Just try to make a useful contribution to the forum – be sure to read the forum rules and don’t spam! 

(3) Reciprocal Linking 

Reciprocal linking has two main benefits for you. 

Firstly, the more links that you exchange, the more chance there is that someone will follow a link from another site and land on your website. 

Secondly, your website will be perceived more importantly by search engines. 

The more links you have from other sites, the greater your chance of getter ranked more highly by all the search engines. 

Here are some Dos and Don’ts to help you get more out of your link exchanges. 

  • Do link with sites that will be of interest to your visitors.
  • Don’t link with pages that have unorganised link directories with hundreds of links on each page. This won’t benefit you with increased traffic or search engine rankings.
  • Do link with sites that have a clearly labelled “Link Directory” from their main page. You aren’t likely to get much traffic from a hidden or hard to find link directory.
  • Don’t use link farms or FFA pages. You are unlikely to get extra traffic using these methods and the search engines may penalise you.
  • Do use link directories to help you find link partners. Visit http://www.homebiz-direct.com/Link-Exchange-Resources.html to find popular link exchange directories.
  • Do stay organised. Use link exchange software, or a spreadsheet to keep track of the link exchanges you have requested and the contact details of the webmasters.

(4) Email Signatures 

This is a very simple, but often forgotten way of increasing your website visitors. 

Most of us are sending lots of emails a day, but many of us just sign them with just our name, or perhaps nothing at all. 

Instead, why not end your emails with a short signature containing your name, a bit about your website along with the URL? 

Keep the signature short (4 lines), to the point and avoid hype or SHOUTING. 

You may be surprised at the extra visitors you receive through doing this. It’s amazing how curiosity will lead the recipients of your email to click on your link! 

(5) Using Traffic Exchanges 

Finally, this is one easy way to guarantee instant hits to your website. You can build up credits for free by surfing or building up a downline to surf for you. 

The downside of this method is that the visitors you receive from traffic exchanges are not as targeted as the visitors that you will receive via the other methods that I have described.

The reason for this is that people surf traffic exchanges for one reason – to earn as many credits as possible in as short a space of time as possible! 

This gives you a challenge – how do you attract the attention of someone who is looking at your web page for 20 seconds or less? 

Here are two tips - 

  • Know your market – spend some time surfing on the exchange that you are advertising on and pay attention to the types of web pages being advertised. Make sure that the pages you advertise are going to interest your target market. 
  • Use a short, simple attention grabbing page that can be read in a few seconds – there is no point advertising a huge page of text that takes 5 minutes to read. The chances are, your visitor will get bored and click on the “next” button without giving your page a fair chance.  

Regularly invest some time in each of these 5 traffic generating methods and you will see your web statistics moving in the upwards direction before you know it.

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Oct 08 2009

5 Reasons Why Blogging is the New Internet Marketing Tool

Category: SEO Traffic — admin @ 11:32 am
Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s.  It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page.  What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun.  As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential.  Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.
1.Blogging is simple.  The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging.  No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse.  It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product.  If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.
2. Blogging is authentic.  In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims.  However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising.  Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience.  You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.
3. Blogging is free.  Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free.   Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up.  Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.
4. Blogging builds credibility.  As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs.  As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs.  As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.
5. Blogging builds your market.  Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts.  Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is.  But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base.  Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:
-By using your e-mail.  Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market.  In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site.  Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site.  If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.
-By using subscription.  An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite.  Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address.  Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.
-By understanding your readers.  Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences.  Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared.  In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.
-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc.  Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject.  Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.
-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today.  As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base.  Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.
Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s.  It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page.  What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun.  As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential.  Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1.Blogging is simple.  The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging.  No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse.  It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product.  If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic.  In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims.  However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising.  Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience.  You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free.  Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free.   Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up.  Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility.  As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs.  As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs.  As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market.  Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts.  Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is.  But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base.  Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail.  Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market.  In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site.  Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site.  If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription.  An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite.  Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address.  Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers.  Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences.  Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared.  In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc.  Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject.  Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today.  As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base.  Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

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Oct 05 2009

Search Engines from a Webmaster Awareness

Category: SEO Traffic — admin @ 1:12 pm

By now, virtually every webmaster has heard or read that the major search engines are responsible for 80% or more of the traffic received by most web sites and that most searchers never look beyond the first 20 – 50 search results. Not surprisingly, an entire industry devoted to search engine ranking and search engine optimization (SEO) has sprung up to capitalize on these well known facts.

Tens of thousands of web sites compete to achieve top ranking for their chosen keywords and keyword phrases. We’ve published numerous articles by various SEO experts on linking strategies, optimizing meta tags and page content, and relevant page content. And, undoubtedly, we’ll publish many more. Achieving a top ranking for a particular keyword or phrase is a major accomplishment, but the sad fact is that most web sites will never come close to reaching a top 10, a top 30, or even a top 100, listing in any major search engine.

Is it possible to be listed in the top 10 – 30 search results of a major search engine? Yes, possible, just not very likely for the average web site. It’s a lot like playing the lottery and with the same appeal. Get your site in the top 10 search results and the payoffs are big – you just need to knock out a few million competitors.

THE RISE OF PAY-PER-CLICK

The difficulty in achieving a top ranking for a free site listing has in recent years given rise to the pay-per-click search engine phenomena. Overture’s singular success with this model has resulted in hundreds of search engines jumping on the pay-per-click bandwagon. Pay-per-click is a great idea and taps right into the frustrated webmaster/site owner market. Many site owners simply do not want to be bothered with checking keyword density, tweaking their page content, fiddling with their meta tags and undertaking linking campaigns.

With pay-per-click, you get the site ranking you can afford. A simple, understandable concept. If money isn’t a problem, the PPC system is hard to beat.

Most experts would probably recommend combining search engine optimization with PPC for maximizing traffic. And, there you have it – the two dominant methods for driving targeted visitors to your web site. Dominant, but probably irrelevant to the vast majority of site owners and webmasters who don’t have the time to learn the ever-changing art of SEO or the budget for PPC’s and SEO firms.

What should be relevant is how to get traffic to your site without breaking the bank or having to earn a degree in SEO techniques. Where it comes from should be secondary. Don’t limit your traffic building efforts to just a few of the majors like Google, Yahoo, Inktomi and Overture. The top 8 or 10 search engines may be popular but that doesn’t mean that your site will reap the benefits.

Here are several reasons why:

1. Sometimes the numbers work against you. Another billion pages added to Google or AlltheWeb are NOT going to help the average site owner – they are just going to bury the needle – your website – deeper in the haystack. And search traffic is only important, if your website can be found.

2. The major search engines cater primarily to searchers not webmasters. Why? Because more search traffic means more revenue and there are far more searchers than webmasters.

3. Even PPC engines deliver more than top 50 search results. That means unless you’re a high bidder, your website may still not be seen by many.

From a webmaster’s perspective what you should be looking for in a search engine is the right balance of search traffic and understandable site listing/ranking options. Engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask Jeeves have massive traffic, but you need to evaluate your chances for having your web site added and then ranked well. You also need to determine if a search engine is more focused on revenue generation through ads, paid inclusion and Sponsored listings than they are in catering to your concerns about where your web site appears.

More specifically, when evaluating any engine regardless of size or traffic, you should consider the following factors:

1. Free Site Listings

A few years ago, you could submit your site to almost any search engine, small or large, for free. But times have changed. Today, even many second tier engines have PPC or paid inclusion programs, and free submissions, where offered, are often given little attention. This ties right into the second feature you should be looking for in a search engine.

2. Indexing Speed

The usual pitch is that free listings can take a month or more to be added (with some SE’s, never is more likely), but a paid listing will be added within 48 hours to a week. Does this make sense? Most search engines don’t manually review site submissions so whether a submission is free or paid shouldn’t affect indexing speed. Slow indexing for free site submissions is most often nothing more than a deliberate ploy to get your money.

3. Ranking Options

Look for a search engine that offers some clues on how to improve your site ranking, short of emptying your wallet. Few engines reveal all the factors they use in ranking sites but knowing where the emphasis is (content, link popularity, meta tags, etc.) can be enough to point you in the right direction. There are also a handful of engines and directories that offer innovative listing options that give your website a much better chance of being seen.

4. Quality Searches

Important to site owners and searchers alike. When quality sites are buried in a sea of second rate listings, no one benefits.

5. Traffic

If you want your website seen, the traffic a search engine attracts is important, but don’t be too quick to write off smaller, up and coming engines. Not too long ago both Google and Overture were considered long shots in the search engine wars. Also, keep in mind that top ranking in an engine that receives a few million searches per month may be more important to you than no ranking in an engine that receives millions of searches per day.
6. Paid Listing Options:

Look for paid listing options that offer more than fast inclusion in a database. With PPC, you get what you pay for, but with paid inclusion, you should receive more than you would with a free listing.

If you’re not familiar with any search engines other than the big players, check out FreeWebSubmission.com (http://www.freewebsubmission.com) where you can find a list of the 50 top search engines that still offer free site listings. Engines are ranked by their Alexa rating which indicates their user popularity. Here’s a list of the top 10 from FWS with current Alexa rankings:

1.Google – 5
2.Lycos – 44
3.AltaVista – 64
4.About – 86
5.Open Directory – 157
6.AlltheWeb – 215
7.ExactSeek – 1,999
8.ScrubTheWeb – 2,483
9.What U Seek – 2,868
10.SearchHippo – 2,905

Some other engines and directories worth considering in your promotion efforts are Gimpsy (http://www.gimpsy.com/), RoList (http://www.rolist.com), SitesOnDisplay (http://www.sitesondisplay.com) and National Directory (http://www.nationaldirectory.com).

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Oct 02 2009

7 Ways to Drive Laser-Targeted Traffic

Category: SEO Traffic — admin @ 11:08 am

An affiliate marketer may have all the things needed for him to be able to succeed in a business such as affiliate marketing.  He may have the necessary drive, diligence and perseverance to be able to understand how the system works.  He may have all the tools necessary in maintaining the business, including a really unique and interesting website which could earn him a fortune if only the whole world could see it.  However, all these would prove useless if he does not know how to drive traffic to his website.  His business would sink into oblivion together with all the sales, fortune and dreams that he might have realized if he only knew how to do this particular task.

Getting people who matter to see one’s website is a difficult undertaking if he tries to consider the fact that there are rivals everywhere waiting to pin him down.  The immensity of the internet as well as the affiliate marketing world has given birth to the fierce competition between affiliate marketers, each of whom has his own great product to offer.  With all the websites piling on top of each other, how would one be able to stand out?  The seven best ways to drive laser-targeted traffic to one’s own website would help those who are bent on sticking it out with this business wherever it is bound to take them.

The first step in driving traffic to one’s website is by relying on search engines and what they can do for the affiliate marketer concerned.  Because they are popular for driving free targeted traffic, they should not be ignored by all means.  Having top search engine rankings is vital in building popularity links, and the use of the right keywords is important in attaining this goal.  Once a website is on top of the list, it is easily accessible to anyone who wants to see it for himself.

The second way in driving traffic to one’s website is by contacting other webmasters for a possible link exchange partnership.  Locating websites that are related to one’s own website is the primary task.  Once there, he should be able to establish communication by personalizing everything as much as possible.  It is then possible to make reciprocal link exchanges between webmasters whichever way the affiliate marketer prefers.

The third way is through writing one’s own articles.  This is an effective way in promoting a website, because good content that are appreciated by readers will lead them to visit the writer’s very own website out of sheer interest.

The fourth way is through joint venture marketing.  This is one of the most effective ways of promoting a product or a service.  Having a partner through ad swap or link exchange is beneficial to both parties as it allows them to reach a wide customer base in a short amount of time.

The fifth is through joining affiliate programs.  Having affiliates to do the work means allowing them to bring tons of traffic to a website.  Skyrocketing sales would be realized as a result, and both the affiliate and the website owner will benefit from the situation.

The sixth is by having a list of subscribers that one can refer to every so often, because they are those which would prove to be valuable assets for the marketer concerned.  The use of autoresponders and personalized newsletters is one way of keeping track of them all, and holding on to them by letting them know about new products and services is an essential task that should be done by the affiliate marketer concerned.

The seventh is by knowing one’s market through and through.  It is important for traffic to be targeted to those who might have a special interest in the theme or topic of one’s website.  This way, a solid customer base is going to be created.  Once a potential customer shows an interest in a particular website by paying it a visit, one must not waste time in trying to show him that his effort is worth it.

Traffic generating strategies are important in trying to make one’s affiliate marketing career inch forward.  It is always advantageous to plan one’s moves in any business that he might undertake.  This is particularly so in affiliate marketing.  If one knows how to get people to see what he has to offer, then he is on the right track.

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