Internet Marketing

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a collection of techniques that can be applied to a website to increase the search engine ranking of the site. Search engine ranking is the position that your site occupies when a search is done using keywords you are targeting on your site.

Why is search engine ranking important?
The higher your site’s position in the search engine results pages (SERPs) the more people will see it and potentially click on your listing, bringing you more traffic. Google, one of the most popular search engines, list 10 search results per page. Most searchers never look beyond the first page of search results. SEO is important because if you can get your site listed in the Google top ten for your search terms you will get significantly more traffic than if your listing shows up on any subsequent pages.

SEO techniques fall under two broad categories, on-page factors and off-page factors.

On Page SEO
On page factors are all the things you can do on your website to increase SEO. The on page factors usually revolve around keywords, and you use these techniques to let the search engines know what you site is about. On page factors include things like the use of keyword and description meta tags, the use of the alt tag for images, HTML header tags, keyword placement, etc.

Off Page SEO
Off page factors revolve around backlinks, but also involve the use of keywords. Backlinks are the links placed on other sites that point to you site. Backlinks are also known as “inbound links”, a term which is often easier to understand. Inbound links are those links pointing towards your site.

Steps You Can Take To Improve Your SEO
1. Always use keyword and description meta tags.
For every page on your site you should have meta tags unique to that page. Meta tags are HTML code found between the tags near the top of the page when you are looking at the HTML code. There’s a good reference for using meta tags here: http://www.freelancedesigners.com/tools/meta_tags.cfm

For the keywords meta tag create a comma-separated list of keywords relevant to your site. Keywords don’t have to be single words. They can, and should, be keyword phrases relevant to the content of that page.

For the description meta tag write a description of your site that would make someone want to click your link. This meta tag’s description is used by some search engines, including Google, as the text description of your site. So it’s not just for the search engine’s benefit, it’s also likely to be seen by a human and it may be the difference between that human clicking on your site’s link or another site.

2. Where you have images on your site, always include an alt tag.
The HTML code for including an image in your page has an optional attribute called the ‘alt’ tag. It’s short for ‘alternative text’. It was originally intended as a text description to aid viewers surfing with images turned off or using a screen reader so they could get an idea of what an image was about, since they couldn’t see it. But search engines also use the alt tag to find out more about what your page is about.

You want the alt tag to contain keywords relevant to your site and the image they are describing. Instead of just putting “header” in the alt tag for your header image, use the opportunity to tell the search engines what your site is about, with something like “Puppy Training Header”, if your site is about puppy training. Don’t over do it though, you want this description to be concise rather than stuffed with every keyword relevant to your site. Here’s a good reference for learning more about image tags: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/article.php/3478181

3. Use header tags wisely.
The header tags H1, H2, H3 etc. are used by search engines to figure out what the important keywords for your site are. You can easily change the appearance of the header tags by using stylesheets, so try to use the standard HTML header tags instead of custom styles for your headers. Then just make sure you’ve got relevant keywords in the headers. The H1 header should contain the primary keyword for your page, the H2 header should contain the secondary keywords for your page, etc.

4. Get backlinks with relevant keywords.
Get backlinks. Lots of them. This should be an ongoing part of your SEO. The more backlinks the better, but you want to grow your backlinks naturally. It looks a lot more natural if you work on getting a handful of backlinks every week than if you suddenly got 10,000 backlinks overnight because you bought them from a link farm. The search engines are watching for these unnatural patterns, and you are likely to be penalized for engaging in such practices.

There are many ways to get backlinks. You can develop relationships with other webmasters to get traditional reciprocal links from other related sites. Participate in forums related to your topic and be sure to have a link to your site as part of your ’signature’. Write articles for article directories which include a link back to your site in the ‘bio box’. Create Squidoo lenses or HubPages with, you guessed it, a link back to your site. If you have a blog submit your RSS feed to RSS Aggregator sites, and add it to your Squidoo lens or HubPage. Use Social Bookmarking services to bookmark your pages and encourage your visitors to do the same. Use Twitter to send out a ‘tweet’ when you post a new article. This is just to get you started, it’s not an exhaustive list by any means.

Now that you have some ideas for where to get backlinks, it’s important that you choose good anchor text for your backlinks when you can. The anchor text is the text that turns into the hyperlink (it’s often blue, sometimes underlined). The search engines also use this text to figure out what your site, or page, is about. So where you can, specify what the anchor text will be. You want to use your main keywords, and variations on your main keywords. Try to vary it a little (that looks natural), while still keeping it relevant of course. Keep in mind that the keywords you use when you are linking to a specific page are not necessarily going to be the same as when you are linking to your homepage.

In some cases you don’t have the option of specifying the anchor text. But don’t miss the opportunity to specify it where you can. If you trade reciprocal links with another site, specify what you want your anchor text to be. The other webmaster will probably appreciate it because it saves them time having to decide what it should be. When you create Squidoo lenses and HubPages, or for your forum signatures you have total control over your anchor text. Use it wisely.

We’ve covered just a few basic, but very important, aspects of SEO in this article. This is a very good place to start if you want to improve your sites search engine optimization. Keep applying these techniques until it becomes second nature and you should see an improvement in both your search engine rankings and an increase in the traffic to your site.

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: adsense, make money online, business opportunity leads, Entrepreneur, business opportunity, small business, work from home, internet home business, home business opportunity, internet business

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

Have you come across adverts like these on the Internet? Every business wants their website to get to the top of Google. Why? Because the level of competition on the Internet is so fierce that if your site is not on the first few pages, it is likely that your web site will never get seen - except by you!

Adverts like these are only partially true. No one can really guarantee you the number 1 spot in Google or any other search engine, and if they can, it may only be for keywords that none of your potential visitors are seeking.

How come? Google’s programmers keep the exact basis on which websites are rated and positioned secret. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts have been able to find out many of the factors that Google weighs to determine which position to assign any particular website. However, no one knows exactly how much weight Google attaches to each factor. So even the experts can get it wrong and spending huge amounts of money on SEO can turn out to be futile.

How does this affect you as a business trying to maximize your web site visibility? Can your site rise to the top of Google? Yes. Possibly. You can get into the top 10 positions - with hard work and depending on a number of factors including what you are promoting, your sites domain name, how much competition there is, the number of pages your website has and how well you use keywords on your site - among others.

What can you do to boost your website sales and position?

a) Try to make your website the best one possible for the services and products you offer. If your site appears unprofessional, is difficult to use, unattractive or lacks the products people want - then even if you get to the top search engine positions, you will not be able to make sales.

Add regular features, articles and special offers to your site. Pay attention to what your competitors are doing and to new trends. Research, update and improve constantly, innovate. Capture details of your visitors in website forms and communicate with them.

b) Identify the best keywords for your website. When you surf the Internet, you type in relevant words. The search engines then find and list websites whose content matches those words. Help your website to be found by including the items people are searching for in your site’s text. Think about what people seeking your products would type in Google. What words do your competitors emphasize on their websites?

c) Apply standard website optimization techniques to your website. Any good website developer will know the basic technical aspects of SEO (Keyword density, using keywords in page titles, keyword selection, tags etc.) So let us focus on the things you as the site owner can influence directly.

As the content provider, sprinkle your keywords throughout your website (e.g. see how often the words “website” and “position” can be found in this article). But make sure you use your keywords in context. Mix up your phrases, but make sure they don’t come across as stilted or un-natural. The last thing you want to do is gain search engine positions and lose customers.

d) Get other websites to link to your website. The links count as votes in your favour.

In summary, while SEO is important and worth paying for if you can afford it, there are many things you can do to optimize your website if you can’t. Remember that optimizing your site will take time to yield any results.

Even if your site never gets to be number 1 in Google, doing these things will benefit both your website and your business.

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: home business, Entrepreneur, work at home, business opportunity, make money online, online business opportunities, internet business, online marketing, make money, internet marketing

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

An important part of generating traffic to your website or blog is to rank highly in the search engine result pages. In addition to having good, relevant content on your site one of the best ways to increase your search ranking is to get high quality backlinks to your site.

Backlinks are hyperlinks placed on another website which link to your site. The most powerful backlinks are one-way backlinks. This means that another website has links pointing to your site, but you don’t have reciprocal links pointing back to theirs.

Using forums is a great way to get high quality one-way backlinks to your site. These links can generate direct traffic to your site, as people browsing the forum click your links in addition to raising your search engine ranking. But you have to be careful when using forums in this way. Do it wrong and you will be branded a spammer and most likely get your forum account closed. But if done correctly, forums can be a very powerful tool in your traffic generation arsenal.

Step 1: Find relevant forums
The key word here is ‘relevant’. You want to be sure to find forums related to your niche - the topic of your website. The easiest way to do this is to go to Google and type in your topic along with the the word ‘forum’. Let’s say you have a blog on coin collecting. You’d type this into Google:

coin collecting forum

There are two reasons you want to find forums related to your niche. First, the search engines will usually give more weight to links pointing to your site if they come from sites centered around the same niche as your site. Secondly, you’ll get much more direct traffic from a forum where the members are interested in your niche.

Step 2: Pick the best forums and join them
Now that you have found some forums you need to check them out and choose which ones to join. Click the links to visit about half a dozen of the top search results. Most forums will allow you to view the content without having to join, it’s only when you want to start posting that you have to register. If you land on a forum that won’t let you view unless you join, forget it and move on.

When looking for a forum to join you want to find ones that are popular, so look for those with a decent number of members. You also need to make sure those members are active. Go into one of the more popular forums categories and scan down the list of threads to see when the last posting was made. This information is usually in the right hand column of the forum threads table. If you see a lot of posts made in the last 24 hours, you’ve found a forum with lots of active members. With the content changing this often, the search engines should be all over that forum, which means that your links will get picked up quickly. Search engines tend to love sites with lots of frequently updated, relevant content. This is the type of forum you want to join.

Now there is just one more step before joining. You need to make sure this forum allows you to have a ’signature’. Jump into one of the more popular threads on the forum. Scroll down and look at the posts to see if anyone has a signature showing at the bottom of their post. There will usually be a horizontal line after the body of the post and some text and/or links underneath it. Often people just have a quote or witty saying, but sometimes they will have links as well. Not everyone will have a signature, but try to find some members who do. Signatures are crucial, because this is where you are going to put the links to your site.

When you find a forum that meets the criteria, follow the steps to register and confirm your membership. If you find just three or four forums that’s plenty to start with.

Step 3: Set up your signature
After you login to the forum you should see a link to your user profile. Often this will be called ‘User CP’ or ‘User Profile’. In the user profile area you can edit things like your avatar, your bio and preferences. Look for a link that says something like ‘Edit signature’ and click that. You’ll see a text field where you can type in the text you want to appear beneath all your posts. This is where you’ll put the backlinks to your site.

Forums use a special kind of code to allow members to format their posts. It’s called BBCode and it’s quite simple to use once you get the hang of it. Copy the examples below and change the URL and text to your URL and some catchy keyword-rich text. Paste the code into you signature box and save it.

Link to your website or blog with this code:

Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.

You can see in the code above where you need to edit the domain to be your domain. In this example, ‘Coin Collecting’ will be the anchor text for the link. This is where you want to put your keywords. Almost all forums will allow you to have a link in your signature.

If you want to make your signature bold, just add the bold tags around it like this:

[b]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/b]

Most forums will allow you to bold the text in your signature. If you add the bold code and your signature still doesn’t come out in bold then it’s you know the bold formatting is not allowed.

Some forums will also allow you to change the color of the text, although the anchor text will come out as the default link color, usually blue. Here’s how you change the text color:

[color=red]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/color]

You can also combine formatting. This would make your signature red and bold (except for the link text which will usually be blue bold).

[color=red][b]Learn how to start [url=http://www.mycoinblog.com/]Coin Collecting[/url] the easy way.[/b][/color]

One final tip for creating your signature. Less is more. If you make your signature look spamming people will treat you like a spammer. You don’t have to use up all available lines in your signature. Make it short, sweet and to the point. If you post great content and people are interested they will click your link.

Step 4: Participate!
The first three steps were all preparation. Now you get to start creating backlinks to your site! It’s simple, just participate in the forum. Post good content, ask questions. Try to help people out by answering questions. Be nice, be helpful.

Every post you make will give you a backlink to your site. The higher the quality of your post, the more powerful your backlink will be, at least in Google. Because Google looks at the text surrounding a link to determine the relevancy of a link having good content in your posts is much more valuable than having a post that says something like, “great post, I agree”. If you simply participate in the forum and try to be friendly and helpful chances are your content will take care of itself.

That’s it. Have fun. And remember, you can change your signature any time you want. You might changing the text a bit from time to time to find out what generates the most clicks through to your site.

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: home business, make money online, home business opportunity, Entrepreneur, business opportunity, work from home, online marketing, adsense, internet home business, online business

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

A sitemap is to a website as the table of contents is to a book. The sitemap lists all the pages in the site, helping visitors and search engine robots find pages in that website. This not only encourages live visitors to return to the site, but also helps in the optimization of the site for search engines.

There are three major types of sitemaps:

1. indexed - The sitemap appears as an alphabetical listing or directory. The relationship among the pages is not indicated.

2. full categorical - The map displays all links which are classified in categories. This type was found to be the most preferred type by users as it makes it easier for them to search for certain topics in the site, and it eases comparison between and among categories.

3. restricted categorical - The sitemap displays all links in a chosen category at a time; you will not see all the links of a website, as compared to the full categorical type. The sitemap confines the list of links under a selected category. This makes viewing easier and less eye-straining.

With any of these types are techniques you can use to set up a superior sitemap. Here are six tips that you can use:

1. Link the sitemap only to your homepage. This will ensure that the search engine robot starts searching from your homepage down to all the pages listed in your sitemap. In this way, no page will be left unvisited by the robot.

2. Limit your sitemap to 30 pages. If you have more than this, the search engines might think that your sitemap is a link farm, and you will be penalized for that. Limiting the number of pages of your sitemap also prevents overcrowding of links. This will make viewing less tiring.

3. Check all the links in your sitemap. It can be discouraging for your visitors if they click on a link only to get a 404 error message or the page requested is not found. Or your visitors click on a link only to be shown a page that has a different topic to that of the link. You should, therefore, test your sitemap, clicking on all the links in every page, to ensure that there are no unbroken links, and that all links are indeed linked to the right page.

4. Give keyword-rich titles to your sitemaps. This helps in the optimization of your website. Search engine robots will search your website properly under the right category.

5. Provide a short description for the links. This will help your visitors to know what to expect to find in a link. This can save your visitors time surfing your website.

6. Be consistent in designing your sitemap with that of the other pages in your website. Use the same HTML template for all pages in your site, including the sitemap. This will establish identity and build character to your website.

By following the above tips, not only will you create a sitemap that is pleasing to the eye, but will also encourage your visitors to return to your site, have the search engine robots crawl through all the pages in your site, and increase your ranking in the search engines.

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: make money, affiliate program, internet marketing, work from home, internet home business, internet business, internet opportunities, business opportunity, online business, Entrepreneur

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

What is pinging?

Pinging is a way of letting search engines know that you’ve created a new post, or updated an existing post on your blog. A ‘ping’ is a message sent to a ‘ping server’ notifying it that the blog has been updated with new content.

What is a ping server?

A ping server is a web-based service that accepts messages in the XML-RPC format. It uses the information in these XML-RPC messages to publish a list of blogs which have updated content. Some of these ping servers run their own blog search engines, and some propagate the information to a number of other ping servers and search engines.

How does pinging work?

Many blog publishing platforms, such as Wordpress, have a built-in pinging tool. In the case of Wordpress, pinging is turned on by default and pings go out to one ping server which updates several search engines.

You can also notify a ping server that you have updated content manually by going to their website and submitting your blog’s name and URL.

One popular ping server is PingOMatic, found at http://pingomatic.com/. When your blog pings PingOMatic it then notifies a number of search engines that your blog has been updated. Many of these search engines also have their own ping server as well.

These search engines can then update their listings with new content almost instantly. This of course will give you one-way backlinks to your blog from these search engines, many of which have a high Google PageRank.

4 things you should know about pinging

1. Only ping when you have updated content. Otherwise, your site might be blacklisted as a spam blog, also known as a splog.

2. If you tend to post to your blog and then re-write the post frequently you might want to make sure you only ping when you actually post new content, not on updates. If you are using Wordpress there are a few plugins that make sure that pings are only sent when a post is created.

3. It’s a good idea to ping several ping services, especially the ones that notify several search engines. Don’t overdo it though. Make sure that if you are pinging a niche search engine that your blog falls into the relevant niche.

4. Make sure that if a search engine is notified by a ping server you are already using that you don’t add that search engines own ping service to your list of servers to ping. Because blog spammers have abused ping servers if you are pinging a search engine multiple times your site might end up being blacklisted, and not appear in the search engines at all.

Popular ping servers

Finally, here’s a list of popular ping servers you might try to get you started.

http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: online business opportunities, business opportunity, affiliate program, work at home, small business, home business, internet business, online marketing, make money, work from home

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

How will your visitor know the contents of your website once he comes to it? Your homepage may set the topic, but what if your visitor wants to know what specific information will he find? This is where a SiteMap is useful. Acting like the table of contents of a book, your SiteMap will let your visitor know if you have the information he needs.

So, what is a SiteMap? Strictly speaking, it is a graphical representation of the structure of your website. It shows how the pages are linked to one another. But such a representation may be difficult to implement, and if there are so many pages, may be even difficult for a visitor to find useful. So, a SiteMap is created by listing all the links of all documents and files found in a website. These links are typically organized in a hierarchical manner, thus improving readability.

Sitemaps do not only serve your ‘human’ visitors, but search engines as well. These robots, or spiders, crawl the Internet, getting data on web pages for a specific keyword. They crawl by following links, giving importance to pages that are linked to. Hence, a good SiteMap is also used for search engine optimization.

Benefits of a SiteMap

Creating sitemaps may take time and effort, so why have one? The following lists some of the benefits for creating a SiteMap for your website.

1. You can use a SiteMap as a planing tool for web design.

Even if you have a website with few pages, it is good to have a structure of your website. This way, if you are to add more pages later on, you will know where to put them. Your site will not become a hodgepodge of pages without any relation to one another.

2. No page will be left unvisited.

The search engine spiders will be able to visit all the pages in your website if you have a SiteMap. Your pages will then be included in the search engines’ databases, increasing your ranking.

3. Visitors will have an easier time to navigate your site.

One factor why visitors stay on a site is the ease to navigate through the site. With a SiteMap, visitors will have an idea on what the contents are in your site. They can also easily access those pages within your site. Without a SiteMap, your visitors may even leave your site, going back to the search engine pages, to look for information that may be in your website.

4. A SiteMap may encourage more traffic.

As your website grows, you must update your SiteMap. This way, visitors will know that content is being added to your website, encouraging them to return. This is also true if you are selling products or offering services. Potential buyers will immediately know your latest products or services by visiting your SiteMap.

5. There is potential advertising value when using a SiteMap.

With a SiteMap, potential advertisers will find it easy to best position themselves in the different pages of your website where they can advertise. This will mean additional income for you.

Benefits of sitemaps are worth the time and effort to create them. Not only will they help you in designing your website, they will also ease the navigation for your visitors, help your website in search engine rankings, increase traffic to your site, and provide you income from advertisements.

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: internet marketing, adsense, business opportunity leads, Entrepreneur, online marketing, work from home, internet opportunities, home business opportunity, home business, affiliate

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

Keyword density and placement are important parts of optimizing your articles for search engines. Search engine spiders scan a page in a way that makes it important to place your keywords where they will be detected and recognized as a keyword, so that your article will come up when someone searches for that keyword.

What is a Keyword?

A keyword is a word that is going to be placed in your article several times, not just once as that would make every word a keyword. When a spider sees that you have a word placed several times in an article, it will determine that your page may be useful to users that search for such a keyword.

Over Optimizing Your Articles

It is important to note that there is also such a thing as over optimizing your articles for particular words, this is known as “keyword stuffing”. When you stuff keywords in an article a spider will detect that you are trying to trick it into placing your article high in the search engine results for that word, and will instead penalize your site and your page for doing such. This may even affect the rankings of your other pages or get your site blacklisted from a particular search engine if you are found keyword stuffing too many times.

What is Keyword Density?

Keyword density is how many times your keyword is placed in your article. Most use a percentage to determine how many times they will put a keyword in an article. For instance, if you have a 500 word article and want to achieve a keyword density of 5%, then you will need to have the keyword in your article exactly 25 times. You can find hundreds of resources and guides recommending one keyword density over another and the reasons behind the logic, however, in the end you will have to determine which density is more profitable for your articles. Each webmaster as their own density that they like to achieve based on past results. As long as you don’t over optimize and you are making sufficient profit from your rankings, then you can choose whatever keyword density you like.

The Right Density

No matter what exact density you choose, it is important to place keywords so that there are more at the beginning and end to produce an hour glass effect. Having the right keyword density in your article makes it more likely that you will make money off of that article because it will rise in the search engine results and be seen by more people.

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: Entrepreneur, business opportunity leads, internet home business, affiliate, affiliate program, work from home, online business, online business opportunities, make money online, work at home

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

Google’s infamous page rank or “PR” is one important factor that online marketers must consider when designing web pages and marketing campaigns. The way that page rank is determined is a hot topic amount experts in Search Engine Optimization.

It’s well known that Google uses a complex algorithm to analyze web pages in order to figure how how well they should be ranked. The exact things that Google uses to determine page rank is a closely guarded secret. It is however well known that one key thing they consider is the number of other pages which link to a specific page, or create so called “back links”.

There’s a ton of info on the net about back links. How people get links is, as most everything else about page rank, controversial. One method of getting back links was to simply buy them from others or through a link broker, which is a practice that is now discouraged by Google.

Google’s argument is that page rank should be determined by a page’s natural popularity, not by artificial means. In other words, Google wants the page rank to reflect real interest in a page, in other words its relevance to specific search terms.

Some argue that this method of determining page rank is all fine and good and noble, while others think it’s a heavy handed, overbearing and perhaps infused with some sinister motive on the part of Google.

While the argument goes back and forth about why Google changed the rules, it is still a fact of life that back links are an important part of how a page is ranked. Page rank is clearly an important issue if you are marketing online.

Simply put, if your page drops below the first page of results from an search query, it will effect traffic to your site. Since traffic equates to potential customers, getting a high page rank is important, especially if you are selling online.

It is generally accepted that there is a difference in the quality of different links. It is not only the number of back links a site has, but also the quality of those links. Once again this is an area of considerable debate and controversy.

So called “reciprocal”links have a bad rap in so far as page rank is concerned. A reciprocal link is one in which sites trade links, often specifically as a means of improving page rank. Apparently Google discounts so called reciprocal links . This means that a page using reciprocal links would not benefit page rank.

The current Search Engine Optimization wisdom is that Google favors so called one way links. As the name suggests these are links which point from one site to another site without any kind of reciprocal link.

The principal argument for this favoritism of one way links is simple. The reasoning here is simple; it is thought that a site with lots of links pointing to it is offering information which others consider to be of high value.

In other words it’s page rank will reflect that others consider it to be a good site by virtue of the number of links they have created to that site. Irrespective of your point of view on if this reasoning is valid, it agreed by leading SEO experts that that back links, and the quality of those links is considered when page rank is calculated.

The real issue for most internet marketers is about how one goes about getting valid and valuable links to your site. In this regard there are two basic approaches - Do it Yourself (DIY) or Outsourcing (OS).

The DIY method can be a time consuming and arduous task but, it has considerable merit for a number of reasons. First among these is simply that it is one means of carefully building the kinds of relationships with other sites that make help increase page rank naturally - which is what Google is looking for.

Outsourcing link building can be done through various agencies who specialize in this technique. There are a number of companies online that claim to provide a matching service which allows one to get back links from other sites. The idea is that they match your with other sites already in their database which have “related content”.

Outsourcing does have some risks since you have may have no control over how links to your site are actually created. Before signing on to any so called link building program you need to be aware of their policies and practices. Caution is certainly a good word to use when it comes to outsourcing your link building to others.

So called social networking is quickly become a popular method of getting one way inbound links to a website. At this point in time this technique might be termed experimental. However some of those using the method are reporting considerable success in quickly improving page rank.

According to Google there are in fact hundreds of factors which go into determining page rank and back links are only one of these. Clearly Google will not share all these factors since others would use that information to compromise the integrity of Google search results.

What is well known and obviously important is that the number and quality of back links are a central part of how a page is ranked by Google. Attention to this detail is as important to online marketers as any other aspect of their venture. It is something which should be well understood and carefully considered in any marketing strategy.

It is important to note that one should be careful to focus on creating websites and web pages which are properly optimized for search engines. Back links, while being important are only one aspect getting a page well ranked.

When building web pages or writing blogs as well as creating articles for use in a marketing program, optimization for search engines needs to be forefront in your thoughts and very much in your awareness. We all have to do the “Google Dance” and it is important to first lean all the steps, success simply depends on it.

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: affiliate, adsense, internet opportunities, make money, work at home, online business opportunities, make money online, work from home, business opportunity, business opportunity leads

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

Creating links from your site to other sites related to yours is a very important tactic for you to improve your search engine position and increase your site’s visibility. This article gives you four ways to do that as well as how to check your site’s link popularity.

Basically there are two types of links to consider. One type of link is an inbound link, or backlink, which is simply a link from another site pointing to your site. All backlinks are good. It doesn’t matter if the content of the other site is similar or related to yours.

The other type of link involves a reciprocal link which means that your site and the other site have exchanged links which point to the other’s site. Good reciprocal links should be from sites which have similar related content. The search engines may penalize you if you accept links that are not from sites with related content.

Here are four ways to located related sites with which you may want to exchange reciprocal links.

1) USE SEARCH ENGINES:

Do a simple search in any of the major search engines for keywords and terms which relate to your website and its content.

When you have located appropriate sites and reviewed them, send the webmaster an invitation message which you should have already created and saved in a drafts folder.

Your success with this method depends a lot on how you approach the selected websites. If possible, your message should be personalized with the webmaster’s name and the link information to their site which you have already posted on your site.

Of course you will also want to include your linking information for your site for them to post a reciprocal link to your site.

2) LOCATE COMPETITOR’S LINKS:

Discover who your competitors are on line and make some visits to their sites to determine who they are linking to. Review those links on their sites and make contact with them about reciprocal links to your site.

They are more likely to reciprocate with a link to your site since you have related content to them and a site with which they are already linked.

To locate your competition, just do a search on one of the major search engines using the keywords for your site.

3) BUILD RELATIONSHIPS:

Building relationships with other sites which are similar to yours in content can be an effective way to build some good, solid, effective links.

Get acquainted with the webmaster by subscribing to their newsletter and contributing articles to it. Send them ideas, suggestions and comments about their site. Offer testimonials for the products or services they offer. Provide a link on your site to theirs and ask for a reciprocal link. These are just a few ways to become a trusted ally and almost always get a reciprocal link.

While it is not the quickest or most efficient way to get links, it may be the most certain way to end with great, relevant links to other sites.

4) THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE & SERVICES:

There are some very helpful services and software available for locating linking partners. It is not the aim of this article to recommend any of these, but rather point out that it is an option for you to consider.

Alexa offers a free enhanced toolbar which you can add to your browser. It’s most important feature is the ability to estimate how much traffic any given site receives. This can be valuable when determining which sites to approach about reciprocal links.

http://www.alexatoolbar.com/site/download

A search with words like “linking software,” “link tools,” or similar terms will produce a variety of sites for you to examine.

MEASURE YOUR LINK POPULARITY:

Link popularity is the total number and quality of links that point to your site. Search engines are looking just for links to your site that may be useless.

Do you know what sites link to you now? You can find out here:

http://www.AddMe.com/popularity.htm

Knowing who links to your site and increasing the amount of good, quality links is an important part of any website promotion.

In Summary, there is a lot to learn about linking strategies. This article is not meant to be all-inclusive, but instead a starting point for you to build links that are effective and valuable

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: internet marketing, online business opportunities, affiliate program, affiliate, make money, work from home, business opportunity leads, online marketing, business opportunity, Entrepreneur

Search Engine Optimization and SEO

Creating links from your site to other sites related to yours is a very important tactic for you to improve your search engine position and increase your site’s visibility. This article gives you four ways to do that as well as how to check your site’s link popularity.

Basically there are two types of links to consider. One type of link is an inbound link, or backlink, which is simply a link from another site pointing to your site. All backlinks are good. It doesn’t matter if the content of the other site is similar or related to yours.

The other type of link involves a reciprocal link which means that your site and the other site have exchanged links which point to the other’s site. Good reciprocal links should be from sites which have similar related content. The search engines may penalize you if you accept links that are not from sites with related content.

Here are four ways to located related sites with which you may want to exchange reciprocal links.

1) USE SEARCH ENGINES:

Do a simple search in any of the major search engines for keywords and terms which relate to your website and its content.

When you have located appropriate sites and reviewed them, send the webmaster an invitation message which you should have already created and saved in a drafts folder.

Your success with this method depends a lot on how you approach the selected websites. If possible, your message should be personalized with the webmaster’s name and the link information to their site which you have already posted on your site.

Of course you will also want to include your linking information for your site for them to post a reciprocal link to your site.

2) LOCATE COMPETITOR’S LINKS:

Discover who your competitors are on line and make some visits to their sites to determine who they are linking to. Review those links on their sites and make contact with them about reciprocal links to your site.

They are more likely to reciprocate with a link to your site since you have related content to them and a site with which they are already linked.

To locate your competition, just do a search on one of the major search engines using the keywords for your site.

3) BUILD RELATIONSHIPS:

Building relationships with other sites which are similar to yours in content can be an effective way to build some good, solid, effective links.

Get acquainted with the webmaster by subscribing to their newsletter and contributing articles to it. Send them ideas, suggestions and comments about their site. Offer testimonials for the products or services they offer. Provide a link on your site to theirs and ask for a reciprocal link. These are just a few ways to become a trusted ally and almost always get a reciprocal link.

While it is not the quickest or most efficient way to get links, it may be the most certain way to end with great, relevant links to other sites.

4) THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE & SERVICES:

There are some very helpful services and software available for locating linking partners. It is not the aim of this article to recommend any of these, but rather point out that it is an option for you to consider.

Alexa offers a free enhanced toolbar which you can add to your browser. It’s most important feature is the ability to estimate how much traffic any given site receives. This can be valuable when determining which sites to approach about reciprocal links.

http://www.alexatoolbar.com/site/download

A search with words like “linking software,” “link tools,” or similar terms will produce a variety of sites for you to examine.

MEASURE YOUR LINK POPULARITY:

Link popularity is the total number and quality of links that point to your site. Search engines are looking just for links to your site that may be useless.

Do you know what sites link to you now? You can find out here:

http://www.AddMe.com/popularity.htm

Knowing who links to your site and increasing the amount of good, quality links is an important part of any website promotion.

In Summary, there is a lot to learn about linking strategies. This article is not meant to be all-inclusive, but instead a starting point for you to build links that are effective and valuable

To Your Success
Cody Moya

Tags: affiliate program, make money, internet home business, online business, adsense, home based business, business opportunity leads, business opportunity, small business, make money online

Search Engine Optimization and SEO