Latest Articles by andyeliason http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us Tying Your Blog Into Your SEO http://www.articletrader.com/internet/blogging/tying-your-blog-into-your-seo.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/blogging/tying-your-blog-into-your-seo.html Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Why is blogging so appealing from an SEO standpoint? Because it is uniquely suited to provide the website in question with some great search engine fodder.

To start with, search engines love content, especially relevant content. And more than that, they love new content. The unfortunate problem that many SEOs are faced with when they take on a new client is the prospect that there is simply no reason or method to validly add new content - relevant or not.

If the new client sells a lawn care service, exactly how often is that going to change? Is there going to be some new, groundbreaking technology that will revolutionize the industry? Are the company offerings going to change on a daily basis? Unlikely. So in cases like these, the company could choose to miss out on the related SEO benefits of new and changing content, or they can start and maintain a blog.

With a blog even the small lawn care company can keep the content flowing. Got a new mower? Drop in a picture and your thoughts on its performance. Or is there a new do-it-yourself guide product on the market? Then maybe an article on how to use it productively would be a good idea.

There are even more SEO benefits than fresh content when you add a blog to your marketing campaign. And one of those is links. You can, of course, build up your internal liking architecture between blog articles and also between your blog and the regular site. In fact, this is practically a requirement. However, there is a larger opportunity here and that is to develop external, one-way links.

Links, it is widely known, are one of the most important factors a search engine uses to judge a site's quality and relevance. There are many SEO techniques out there that can be employed to gather these links. And blogs, or at least the articles on these blogs, create great opportunities to achieve great results.

As you participate in the blogosphere and start to increase your traffic people will start reading and hopefully enjoying your articles. When they see something of value in your blog they are going to link to it in their own blogs or possibly submit it to social bookmarking sites. This, in turn, can increase your exposure, then your visits, then achieve some more links.

The key, then, when writing your blog with SEO in mind is to, well, keep SEO in mind. All the best practices that apply to search engine optimization also apply to your blogging.

In other words, don't fill your blog with useless, keyword-stuffed content. People are visiting blogs because they are looking for something with substance. They are looking for an opinion they can trust. If all they find are nonsensical uses of keywords, they won't come back. They especially won't see any reason to link to you.

You must also avoid duplicate content issues. With blogs it's a little different than regular website content because most blogging software automatically creates a permanent page that may or may not duplicate the content on the front page. But that doesn't mean it's okay to keep repeating yourself. No one likes reruns.

Blogging and SEO are two practices that can help you reach the top of the search engine results pages. You need to be there to get noticed, but if you've used questionable practices to do it, you will receive the kind of attention and reputation you really don't want. But if you do it right, you can secure your position at the top.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah Internet Marketing company. If you'd like to learn more about using blogs in your SEO practices, visit their site today.



Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> Internet Marketing For Getting In Consumers Eyes and Minds http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/internet-marketing-for-getting-in-consumers-eyes-and-minds.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/internet-marketing-for-getting-in-consumers-eyes-and-minds.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
This is not a quick process, and Internet marketing requires completely different strategies than more traditional advertising campaigns. The end result and goal is the same, to place yourself first in your customers' minds when they want to purchase a product or service.

Traditional advertising uses a push marketing strategy. Which is to say that the intent is to convince you that you want and/or need their product. They do this by creating "memorable" songs, images, commercials, and other media to devise lasting impressions. The idea is that if they can get these concepts into the customers' heads they will be the first choice when it comes time to make a purchase.

Internet marketing relies on some different factors. One of those is the extreme short attention span of the average Internet shopper. Studies have shown that most searchers will look at the first page of results and some will go to the second, a few will even make it to the third, but it's a very rare case that a searcher goes further than that. If you want to be the one they choose, you have to appear on those pages. They are not going to search through a large number of results to find a listing that may or may not match an advertisement they may or may not have seen in the past. Internet marketing strategies must be targeted at consumers who are living in the moment.

It sounds tough, and Internet marketing strategies can take some time to properly implement. That being said, the benefits to Internet marketing can easily offset the time requirements. The reason is because Internet marketing is pull marketing - the direct opposite of traditional advertising campaigns. No longer are you trying to convince the customer that they want or need your product. Now your are simply making yourself available to those who already know they want it. You just have to pull them in.

And that is why staying in their sight, in front of their eyes, is so crucial to an Internet marketing strategy. When someone is shopping online they are in the mindset to buy something immediately. They have chosen the Internet for convenience, and searching through countless results does not figure in to it.

So getting to the top of the search engine results pages should be a top priority for any company who wants to take advantage of online marketing. There are a number of ways to do this, some good and some not so good, often referred to as White Hat and Black Hat SEO respectively.

Some companies turn to the Black Hat techniques in order to reach the top quicker than would naturally happen. This is a bad idea for a number of reasons. The first being that the search engines frown greatly on that sort of behavior. But just as important is the fact that customers can spot bad SEO behavior. When they see a page covered in tricks and cumbersome procedures, well, you will certainly be in the customers' eyes and minds, but the associations that will go along with it will make sure that they quickly leave the site and choose the next highest result.

Internet marketing also requires a certain level of maintenance that traditional advertising doesn't need. For online marketing your ratings can slip at any time if you give up on link recruitment or other activities. Advertising can count on those annoying or catchy tunes to leave a more lasting impression.

There are differences to these approaches to marketing, but if you keep your goal of staying in the consumers' eye, you'll be on their mind when they're ready to make a purchase.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah Internet marketing company. If you'd like to know more about how to use Internet marketing in your advertising campaign, visit their site today.



Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> Is Article Marketing Still Valid? http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/is-article-marketing-still-valid.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/is-article-marketing-still-valid.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Unfortunately, like so many other things in the SEO industry, people began to try to employ this strategy in less than ethical ways. This could include spamming the article sites with countless slightly-modified versions of the same article, or filling the article with content that was nothing but gibberish - lots of keywords - but mostly gibberish.

As such, and as always happens when people try to exploit a methodology, the search engines quickly caught on and devalued the process, and sometimes penalized for it. With that being the case, one needs to ask, is article marketing still a valid option?

The short answer is, if you do it right, yes it is.

Of course, even done right, it may not have the same weight that it once did, but it can still be an effective means by which new customers can learn about your site. And it doesn't matter if they come straight through your articles, or through your high ranking position on the search engines. Either way, you can still see some good results.

Links are one of the most important parts of your search engine ranking. These are considered a type of vote for your site. Unfortunately, not all votes are equal in this online world. A vote from a large and popular site is worth quite a bit more than a vote from a run-of-the-mill site. But that doesn't mean that you can't make something from those smaller sites.

Quantity is still a consideration. Again, this is where you can tread a fine line. If you overdo it, the search engines can turn on you. But if you are actually writing good, informative articles on a regular basis, you can really begin to develop your online presence - even if you can't convince the larger sites to link to you.

The common practice for article marketing is to write your article in a way that conveys valuable information without being an overt advertisement. These articles shouldn't be over long or you'll lose a potential customer's attention. But at the same time it should also be substantial enough to convey the right message.

Generally speaking, this means that an article in the range of 600 to 1000 words will be just about right. This gives you plenty of space to detail a message, but keeps it short and sweet so you don't lose them before they even get a chance to click on your link.

By following some of these simple measures you can find a lot of success online. Article marketing can be a strong, solid component of your SEO campaign. If you want to be found online, this is a great way to get started.

Possibly the most important thing to keep in mind when you use article marketing to propel your SEO, and that is consistency. A single link or two won't do you much good in a world of competition that is always increasing their own links. You will have to consistently increase yours if you want to keep up.

A steady stream of new, one way links to your site can be a tremendous benefit. And this can be achieved if you can consistently produce good articles. This links are perhaps not as valuable as the links from larger sites, but they are a strong foundation nevertheless. And that sort of foundation does, in fact, mean that article marketing is still a valid resource.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah SEO company. If you'd like to learn more about using article marketing in your SEO campaign, contact their representative today.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> Developing Internet Marketing Strategies http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/developing-internet-marketing-strategies.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/site-promotion/developing-internet-marketing-strategies.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Even with all the information available online about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, and all other forms of Internet marketing, many companies are unaware of the best procedures to get to the top of the search engines. Working in the SEO industry I am often surprised (though I suppose I shouldn't be) at how many misconceptions are still so prevalent.

For example, many companies still believe a simple website is enough. If you build it they will come. And then they seem surprised when no one visits the site. Then there are the companies who actually still believe that old Black Hat SEO techniques are valid Internet marketing strategies. These are techniques that have long ago been shunned by search engines, such as keyword stuffing or automated generation of countless doorway pages.

Why do they do this? Because somewhere along the line of marketers someone heard that someone else had a lot of success doing this. Pretty vague, right? This is, of course, a bad way to start developing Internet marketing strategies.

If you are going to create a valuable marketing plan you must start with a strong knowledge base. This is probably the main motivation for many companies to outsource their SEO campaign. The just don't feel as though they can conquer the learning curve withing a manageable time frame.

But if you are going to do it in-house, this is where you need to start. Gain an understanding of what works and, more importantly, why it works. The same goes for techniques that are ethically questionable. Find out what makes them Black Hat SEO and why all the search engines frown on them. Then you'll be able to actively apply your knowledge as you attempt new Internet marketing strategies.

The next step in developing a strong marketing plan is evaluation. Take a moment and really evaluate what you have on your site. It has to be a "friendly" site, and it has to be friendly in at least two aspects. First, you must be visitor friendly. This means readable content, intuitive navigation, and strong information architecture.

Second, you must also be friendly to the search engines. This means readable content, intuitive navigation, and strong information architecture.

Sound similar? There's a reason for that. They are. But don't be completely fooled. Search engines and customers may be looking at the same thing, but the way to impress them is subtly different. Knowing these differences will help you accomplish this and be friendly to both at the same time.

Next, it's time to reach out to other areas of the Internet and draw attention to your site. I'm not talking about customers yet. I'm talking about other websites. You need links from them in order to build high rankings. These rankings will be required before customers can find you, so you must seek out "votes" from other sites first. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, and a great deal of SEO revolves around this task. This could include social marketing, viral marketing, article marketing, bloggin, and any other ethical method to gain one-way, quality links.

Finally, and this almost brings us full circle, a marketing strategy requires understanding. It means you must understand that despite the speed in which eCommerce moves, Internet marketing does not have overnight results. It takes time. Time to gather links and time to build trust with customers and with search engines.

Developing an Internet marketing strategy, then, requires knowledge, evaluation, outreach, and understanding. When you can accomplish this you can begin to secure your online presence.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah Internet marketing company. If you'd like to learn more about developing your SEO campaign, visit their site today.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> The Wrath of the Search Engine http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/the-wrath-of-the-search-engine.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/the-wrath-of-the-search-engine.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
For this reason, search engine optimization (SEO) has become an important aspect of any good online marketing campaign. Most users never look beyond the third page of search results, so if you want to get noticed, if you want to be found, you need to find a way to reach those top rankings.

SEO stopped in and gave companies a way to move up the rankings. But it isn't quite so straightforward as many marketers might normally hope. There is Whitehat SEO, the kind that is considered ethical, best practices, and Blackhat SEO, the kind that is not. And then there is the case of Grayhat SEO, the stuff that falls somewhere in between. These practices (the Gray and Blackhat techniques) are the ones that can incur the wrath of the search engines.

In some cases companies have been willing to risk a little wrath just to climb the rankings a little faster. Those who have did so under the impression that either a) they can outsmart the search engines or b) that the search engines are the enemy and must be conquered at any cost. These arguments are extremely flawed.

First, the idea that the search engines won't catch you, that somehow you can outsmart them is wishful thinking at best. There are certain measures, certain techniques, that can help you increase your rankings. There are certain things that search engines use to judge your site. And when you try to manipulate those things, it is not difficult for the search engines to catch on.

Second, the search engines are not the enemy. Their own success is based on the ability to deliver the most relevant results. In other words, if that is you - if you have the most relevant material to a given keyword - then the search engine actually wants you to reach the top.

So what kind of SEO activities fall into the Wrath Inducing category? There's quite a few and many of them have been around for a while, and others that are relatively new attempts. This includes practices like cloaking, which is the process of serving one page to the search engines and a completely different one to your customers.

Keyword stuffing - filling your pages and/or metadata with the same targeted keyword - is a wrathful endeavor. So is hiding the keywords by making them the same color as the background.

Recently the search engines have started weighing links much heavier than just keywords. So this has led to many SEO attempts at hiding links or spamming sites that might allow links to a site. Again, this is behavior that will just get you more wrath.

Links are a little harder to disguise than regular text, but many sites have tried. Sometimes they will hide them just below the fold, they they aren't technically hidden, but they're also not technically displayed. They are also often characterized by the use of the same keyword in the links over and over again. This kind of technique would likely fall into a "gray" area. It is grounds for wrath, but it is also likely to receive a lot of debate as to whether or not it deserves the wrath.

And what form, exactly, does Search Engine Wrath take? It could come in loss of rank, it could come in a range of penalties, but most likely it will just come as a ban from the search engines. And when you get removed from the index, all the SEO in the world can't help you. No one will find you because you are not there to be found. If you rely on the Internet for your business, this kind of wrath can quickly end it.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah SEO company. If you'd like to learn more about search engine marketing and working with the search engines, visit their site today.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> SEO - Be Direct, Be Clear http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/seo-be-direct-be-clear.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/seo-be-direct-be-clear.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 persuade you to buy anything and/or everything.

If they talk fast enough, or maybe if they fill your head with so many claims, they feel that you can be convinced.

Unfortunately, there are many sites on the Internet who feel the same way, that if they inundate the friendly neighborhood visitor with claims and boasts and incomprehensible numbers and figures, they'll persuade you that what they are offering is exactly what you need. And surely you'd agree with them... once you've waded through all the claims.

Or, there is the other situation, the one in which you wander into the wrong store, either because the name was misleading or you just weren't paying enough attention. The same thing happens online. SEO practices can get certain websites to the top of the ranking for a given keyword, even if the searcher's intent doesn't quite match up with the content of the site. The visitors who click on your site need to know they found the right place before they have the chance to beat a hasty retreat.

Given these experiences, it should be obvious that being direct and being clear is at least as important a part of SEO as keyword rich content writing or link recruitment. Well, to rephrase, it is important if you want to increase your conversion rate and not just the number of visitors.

Often SEO developers are focused on creating keyword relevant content, and advertisers are focused on finding that great turn-of-phrase or magical call to action that will persuade a visitor to make a purchase. But the truth of the matter is that often it is the simple act of making your site clear that will do the most good for your business.

By clear and direct, this means that a potential customer will need to know immediately where they are, what they can do/buy there, and why they should choose you over the competition.

For example, an old SEO tactic (a bad tactic, it should be added) was to redirect visitors to a different page. But it doesn't have to be that dramatic, either. If a visitor clicked on a PPC ad that claimed there was a free download/membership/whatever at the other end, yet when they get to the site there is no clear path to the freebie, this can lead a consumer to believe that they found the wrong place and they will try somewhere else.

Helping them understand what they can do on your site should happen next, and it should happen very quickly. Don't make them wade through lines of text before giving them an option to do something. That option should be available to them from the beginning, and they should know exactly what that option entails.

Finally, they need to see why you are the right choice instead of your competition. This does not mean bragging and talking yourself up. When you do that you've just reverted to the care salesman mentality again. And no one likes dealing with these personalties unless they absolutely have to. Clear comparisons and honest testimonials will go a lot further than hollow promises and claims.

Many times content writers feel like they need to answer the "why" before the "what" and the "where". This only leads to cumbersome dialogue and weary customers. Proper content needs to quickly confirm where they are and what they can do. Do not try to present the solution before the problem. When you address these issues you can start to create a site that will interest your customers and help them choose to do business with you.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah SEO firm. If you'd like to learn more about strong Internet marketing methods then visit their site today.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> Dealing With SEO Clients http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/dealing-with-seo-clients.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/dealing-with-seo-clients.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
And this can lead to misunderstandings and misplaced expectations. And when that happens, it can be very difficult to deal with your SEO clients.

So how do you do it? How do you keep the clients happy?

It's not easy, but it can be done. You just need to anticipate some of their inevitable issues very early on.

First of all, time means different things to an SEO company than it does to the client. For the average Internet company, whether selling items or services, they need to see immediate results. It's bred into every decision they make. If they are not making progress then they are falling behind. That is simply the attitude that is created in such a competitive market.

To an SEO company, on the other hand, time is a necessary part of the equation. It can't be manipulated and it can't be ignored. Time is simply a requirement of the search engines, and the only way to get around it is to employ less than ethical SEO techniques. And these are as likely to get them banned from the search engines as it is to increase their rankings withing them.

Another misconception is that once they've achieved certain rankings they'll no longer need to employ an SEO company. This also is untrue, but something that traditional companies cannot wrap their heads around. The normal advertising model would include a large marketing push to establish your name and reputation, and then riding it out as long as possible. When that momentum dries up they can just make another push.

It doesn't work like that with SEO. Once you've established yourself in the natural SERPS you've got to maintain that position. The moment you stop actively improving your ranking you'll start slipping back down. And Internet mentality is different from normal consumerism in that if they are not in front of the consumer's eyes, they will not be in the consumer's mind.

Now, with these impending problems in mind, I am not suggesting that you go to all your clients with demands and requirements that involve significantly extended contracts. This is not the way to deal with your SEO clients.

What I am recommending is a practice application of education. This is not a simple road, after all, the reason many companies are hiring you is specifically to avoid the need of gaining that extra education. So how do you begin? This can be different for each client, but you should be direct and honest with them. Full disclosure of your practices should not be feared. In fact, if you do it right, by teaching clients about your procedures you will also be teaching them about the overall SEO process and how the two interact. And, more importantly, exactly what kind of results they can reasonably expect.

Many SEO companies try to horde their practices as if it were some secret knowledge that no one else can have or possibly understand. But when your clients have no idea what you are doing for them on a day to day basis, is it really a surprise when they get a little tetchy? This kind of direct dealing is a great way to anticipate and take care of your clients' needs.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah SEO firm. If you'd like to learn more about Internet Marketing, visit their site today.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> How Internet Mentality Effects SEO http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/how-internet-mentality-effects-seo.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/how-internet-mentality-effects-seo.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Compare the Internet consumer to the brick and mortar consumer. When a customer wanders the mall or other shopping center they have a vague idea that they may buy something... say, shoes. They will go from store to store and try a few things on and if they come across a great pair, or if they are presented with an incredible deal of some sort they may just buy.

Then there is the Internet customer. They get online and search for, say, "blue expensive shoes." This means that they are far more likely to purchase the first blue and expensive shoes they see... or they are at least more likely compared to a customer wandering from store to store. So here is the first thing SEO must consider: the potential customers have probably already made the decision to buy something. Now you have to cater to that mindset.

How do you do that? By taking into account the second Internet mentality SEO must address to be successful. And that is the intensely short attention span of the average visitor.

Everyone knows that SEO is trying to get a website to rank better because most people who use a search engine are unwilling to look past the third page of results to find the site they want. But SEO needs to think of more than that. They need to consider the searcher's intent.

When the searcher and potential customer clicks on your listing that you have worked so diligently to move up the rankings, will they see what they really expected to see? Will they find what they were really looking for?

If not, then it's just a simple click to immediately leave the site again.

Search engine optimization has a growing history and reputation, and not all of it is good. Black Hat SEO, those optimization techniques that are less than ethical, has made the Internet market a careful and suspicious one. Many customers have found themselves on a website they had no interest in, or might have even been completely opposed to. But they went there because someone had gotten it to the first page of results.

The Internet mentality won't let a customer be satisfied with clicking away in frustration. Nor will they be happy with warning a few friends about your questionable practices, not when there is so much more they can do to cause you at least as many headaches as you cased them. Popular options these days include blog posts, jamming your own forums with bad reviews, posting on other sites, and even reporting you to the search engines who will act more quickly and more brutally than the Better Business Bureau ever did.

Currently there is a big SEO push to try and take advantage of the social mentality on the Internet. Some of these have been more effective than others. The underlying idea was sound. In the social networking model the plan is to get one consumer to recommend the product or service to another customer. Or, at least, to make it look like the recommendation comes from another customer.

But this, like any other SEO tactic, can backfire when it's done wrong. Communities are very protective of their own, and if they find that someone has tried to infiltrate their community in the name of base commerce, you will alienate yourself from that group completely.

When you undertake an SEO campaign, remembering the Internet mentality is one of the foundational aspects that can help you build true, long-term success.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah SEO company. If you'd like to know more about how Internet Mentality will effect your Internet Marketing Campaign, visit their site today.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> 3 Detailed SEO Link Building Tactics http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/3-detailed-seo-link-building-tactics.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/3-detailed-seo-link-building-tactics.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The first SEO tactic is Article Marketing. This one has been around for a while, but is still a valid method for obtaining links. The process works by first writing an article that is somehow beneficial to the community at large. What this means is that you must not write a lot of self-promotional drivel. You have to write something that is legible and valuable.

Once the article is written you submit it to various sites around the net. These sites make the article available for others to reprint on their own sites which will, in turn, continue to increase the number of links to your site.

There are some old tricks here that need to be avoided as well. There are a lot of claims by companies that they can automate both the writing and submission processes. However, subscribing to these systems really just makes you that annoying person that spams the submission sites with pages and pages of gibberish. You never want to be that person.

Article marketing as part of your SEO strategies, then, can be a strong foundation, a way of building up a constant stream of new and valid links. And maybe even some traffic.

The next link building tactic is to follow in the steps of your competition. This begins with your keyword research (which should have happened at the beginning of your SEO campaign) and research into what your competitors are targeting. Then you can discover where their links are coming from. And once you've accomplished that task, you can seek out a link from them as well.

Again, you have to be careful and avoid certain behaviors. First, don't just spam-email a number of vaguely related sites. These requests just end up in the junk email pile, if they don't seriously annoy the site manager first. Second, don't beg. Give them a real reason to want to link to you, and it will happen. By offering something of value to the community you are targeting you can naturally encourage the others to link to you just as they did to your competition.

The third SEO link building tactic is to use blog comments. Community is becoming more and more important in the online and Internet marketing worlds. Not only should a company maintain a blog, but they should actively follow other blogs in their industry as well.

In this link recruitment tactic, however, the links should actually be considered a secondary benefit. Just like asking for links, you should be honestly adding something to the conversation at hand. And that means you cna't just jump from blog to blog leaving comments like "great post" or "U R so SMRT." When you leave comments like that you are not fooling anyone. And you might just earn the annoyance of the blogger who could decide to delete the worthless comments.

Other comment etiquette includes always leaving quality comments, i.e. Spelling errors and grammar mistakes won't endear you to potential visitors. When you fill in the name field you should not stuff it with keywords. This is obvious spam. And when you do include a link, use the URL field. That's what it's there for. And just like articles, trying to post the same-but-slightly-different comment again and again or across multiple blogs will get them deleted by most bloggers.

By employing these methods consistently in your SEO campaign you can begin to increase your rankings and develop a strong reputation in the online realm.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah SEO company. If you'd like to learn more about link recruitment for SEO purposes, visit them today.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> Start SEO by Following Guidelines http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/start-seo-by-following-guidelines.html http://www.articletrader.com/internet/seo/start-seo-by-following-guidelines.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Often one can see a trend in which search engine optimization personnel develop tactics that are adversarial to the search engines, as if you have to struggle against them or trick them in order to achieve good rankings.

This is, in fact, untrue. The reason is because the livelihood of a search engine depends on its ability to deliver relevant content. If you have valid, useful, and relevant content on your site, the search engines actually want you to reach the top.

To this end, Google has posted a number of webmaster guidelines to help companies get their SEO processes on track. But despite the inclusion of these guidelines, many companies either miss them or gamble on the idea that trying to fool Google will be effective.

The guidelines laid out by Google are fairly simple to follow, and are divided into three sections. These are design/content, technical, and quality guidelines.

To begin with, you have to make sure your site is ready for your SEO measures. This means submitting it to Google (or other search engines). It's a strange step to forget, and you can get crawled without it - as long as other sites link to you - but some people have been known to miss it. It is such a simple step, though, you just need to get it done. You should also submit a site map because this helps the search engine understand the structure and layout of your site. And this means you'll have a better chance of making sure Google sees your whole site.

For design and content guidelines, the recommend that you create a site with a clear architecture or hierarchy that employs good text links. The content that you include should also be clear and informative. Always keep in mind the keywords your customers might use to find your product or service, and then be sure to include them in the content. If at all possible, you should use text instead of graphics of words, since Google still can't read a picture.

Keep the mechanics well oiled. This means making sure there are no broken links, and the title tags or alt tags are useful and descriptive. There is also best practices in HTML, and you should follow them carefully.

The technical guidelines are, well, a little more technical. Make sure that you actually allow the bots to crawl your site, and allow them to do it without session IDs or arguments. You should also use the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. This tells Google whether or not you've changed your content since the last time you were crawled. You should also make proper use of the robots.txt file, so you can keep the bots out of sections of your site that don't really add much value.

The quality guidelines cover a lot more specific dos and don'ts. You should always build your pages for your customers first, and then employ SEO tactics for the search engines second. You should never, ever employ cloaking tricks, i.e. feeding the search engines something different than what you serve to a customer.

They go on to say that you should avoid using hidden text or hidden links, and you shouldn't create reams of duplicate content. Don't create pages that have malicious intent, and doorway pages that are auto generated and have no value to a visitor.

By following simple guidelines like this, and, above all, always providing valid and valuable content, your SEO practices can help you reach the top of the search engine ladder.

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Andy Eliason is a writer at Main10, Inc, a Utah SEO company. If you'd like to learn more about using SEO in your marketing campaigns, visit their site today.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>