Wednesday, October 10, 2018
What Does an SEO Consultant Do?
SEO consultants' jobs are to help grow your business by increasing organic search traffic. But not all SEO consultants are good - this post also gives insight into spotting bad or unethical SEO "experts."
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
What's the Average Cost of SEO?
The average cost of SEO varies depending on the business industry, competition, and current SEO health. This guide goes in-depth so you have a better idea of how much your SEO will cost.
Monday, October 8, 2018
How does SEO work?
SEO is a complex system determined by Google's algorithm. We're breaking down how SEO works in this post. Check out the details.
Thursday, October 4, 2018
How long does it take for SEO to work?
SEO takes around 6-9 months to start working for your business. But there's more - find out why SEO takes so long and what you can do about it.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
What is SEO?
SEO is a powerful tool that small business-owners can use to take their business to the next level online. This post shares exactly what SEO is and why it matters.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Search Engine Optimization
If you want your online business to be successful, it's a good idea to optimize your site on a regular basis to make sure it's got a good position in the web's top search engines. And it's important to keep on top of the latest developments in the search engine industry and what key tactics you should--and shouldn't--use to optimize your site to make sure it gets a high ranking with all the major search engines.
For the past few years, the major search engines have been preparing to square off against each other and battle it out for the industry's top spot. Google has been No. 1 for a while now, with Yahoo! and MSN coming in at numbers two and three. Keep in mind, however, that Google and Yahoo! power many of the smaller search engines. For example, Google powers the free listings featured on AOL and Netscape, plus the paid listings featured on AOL, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, Teoma and Lycos. Yahoo! powers free listings featured on AltaVista, AllTheWeb and HotBot, plus the paid listings on MSN, AltaVista and AllTheWeb.
Search engines frequently change the algorithms they use to rank sites. They don't want unscrupulous site owners manipulating their indexing methods in order to get high rankings. By doing so, they damage the integrity of free search. As soon as the search engines become aware of a trick being used by "search engine spammers" to boost their site ranking, they figure out a way to catch them.
The search engines don't want to be manipulated by marketers. They want to provide the best unbiased results possible for any given search--or they'll lose users. That's why they need to change their algorithms so frequently-to stay ahead of the tricks people use to get top rankings.
So be careful! You don't want to catch yourself employing a great strategy promoted by a marketing "expert," only to find out it's a tactic the search engines hate! That could get you booted off their listings in no time flat. Let's take a look at what exactly the search engines are looking for when indexing sites--and what they'll punish you for.
The Dos
There are still a lot of legitimate ways you can optimize your site to generate or maintain a high ranking without angering the search engines and causing them to drop you from their list. Here are some of the best things you can to do ensure your site has a high ranking:
1. Ask relevant sites to link to your site. In the past, scoring a high ranking with a search engine was all about positioning your keywords in "prime real estate" positions in your text and site coding. All that has changed, however, because these days, links are king.
Search engines place a huge amount of importance on the number of sites that link to yours. But it's not just the quantity of links that matter, it's also the quality. Search engines look at how relevant the links are, that is, how much the content of the linking site has in common with the content on your site. The more relevant, the better.
Search engines also look at how important the linking site is. What kind of online presence does it have? How much traffic does it get? For example, your site will get a higher ranking if it's linked to by sites such as BBC.com or nationalgeographic.com instead of, say, the personal homepage of your friend's neighbor's kid.
2. Pay attention to keyword inclusion and placement.
Keywords may no longer be the sole determining factor of a site's ranking, but they're still pretty important. The most useful places to include them are:
In your domain name--only make sure your keywords are in the root of your URL, not the stem. For example, if your main keyword phrase is "cell phones," try to get a domain name such as "www.cell-phones.com" instead of "www.mobileusa.com/cell-phones." Some search engines will actually penalize sites for including key words in the stem of a URL.
In the title tags in your source code
In the meta description of your site. This is much less important than it used to be, but it can't hurt.
In your meta keyword tags
And be sure you only include relevant keywords. Search engines will penalize you if you try to sneak in keywords that have nothing to do with the content of your site.
3. Create content-rich information pages to direct traffic to your site.
An easy way to boost the number of pages that link to your site is to create some pages yourself. However, you have to make sure these pages contain valuable content that provides people with useful information. Search engines hate "pointer pages" that have no content and exist only to add to the number of links pointing to a site.
Be sure the information relates to the content on your site and has your keywords placed in advantageous positions. This will boost the ranking of your pages with the search engines and ensure they get lots of traffic-which they can then redirect to your site.
4. Submit your site to online directories.
Be sure to submit your site to important directories such as Yahoo!, the Open Directory Project and About.com, as well as smaller directories. Your listing on these directories will help your ranking with the major search engines.
5. Multiply and conquer.
Create a community of related sites that link to each other. Why stop at only one information page? The more content-rich sites that point to your site, the better.
You can also boost the number of links that point to your site by dividing it into several separate sites that all link to each other. This works especially well if you sell a number of different products or services. If you build a different site to focus on each of your products and services, then you can also concentrate the use of specific keyword phrases on each site. That's another great way to boost your search engine ranking.
View Source to Continue Reading: Search Engine Optimization
Search engines frequently change the algorithms they use to rank sites. They don't want unscrupulous site owners manipulating their indexing methods in order to get high rankings. By doing so, they damage the integrity of free search. As soon as the search engines become aware of a trick being used by "search engine spammers" to boost their site ranking, they figure out a way to catch them.
The search engines don't want to be manipulated by marketers. They want to provide the best unbiased results possible for any given search--or they'll lose users. That's why they need to change their algorithms so frequently-to stay ahead of the tricks people use to get top rankings.
So be careful! You don't want to catch yourself employing a great strategy promoted by a marketing "expert," only to find out it's a tactic the search engines hate! That could get you booted off their listings in no time flat. Let's take a look at what exactly the search engines are looking for when indexing sites--and what they'll punish you for.
The Dos
There are still a lot of legitimate ways you can optimize your site to generate or maintain a high ranking without angering the search engines and causing them to drop you from their list. Here are some of the best things you can to do ensure your site has a high ranking:
1. Ask relevant sites to link to your site. In the past, scoring a high ranking with a search engine was all about positioning your keywords in "prime real estate" positions in your text and site coding. All that has changed, however, because these days, links are king.
Search engines place a huge amount of importance on the number of sites that link to yours. But it's not just the quantity of links that matter, it's also the quality. Search engines look at how relevant the links are, that is, how much the content of the linking site has in common with the content on your site. The more relevant, the better.
Search engines also look at how important the linking site is. What kind of online presence does it have? How much traffic does it get? For example, your site will get a higher ranking if it's linked to by sites such as BBC.com or nationalgeographic.com instead of, say, the personal homepage of your friend's neighbor's kid.
2. Pay attention to keyword inclusion and placement.
Keywords may no longer be the sole determining factor of a site's ranking, but they're still pretty important. The most useful places to include them are:
In your domain name--only make sure your keywords are in the root of your URL, not the stem. For example, if your main keyword phrase is "cell phones," try to get a domain name such as "www.cell-phones.com" instead of "www.mobileusa.com/cell-phones." Some search engines will actually penalize sites for including key words in the stem of a URL.
In the title tags in your source code
In the meta description of your site. This is much less important than it used to be, but it can't hurt.
In your meta keyword tags
And be sure you only include relevant keywords. Search engines will penalize you if you try to sneak in keywords that have nothing to do with the content of your site.
3. Create content-rich information pages to direct traffic to your site.
An easy way to boost the number of pages that link to your site is to create some pages yourself. However, you have to make sure these pages contain valuable content that provides people with useful information. Search engines hate "pointer pages" that have no content and exist only to add to the number of links pointing to a site.
Be sure the information relates to the content on your site and has your keywords placed in advantageous positions. This will boost the ranking of your pages with the search engines and ensure they get lots of traffic-which they can then redirect to your site.
4. Submit your site to online directories.
Be sure to submit your site to important directories such as Yahoo!, the Open Directory Project and About.com, as well as smaller directories. Your listing on these directories will help your ranking with the major search engines.
5. Multiply and conquer.
Create a community of related sites that link to each other. Why stop at only one information page? The more content-rich sites that point to your site, the better.
You can also boost the number of links that point to your site by dividing it into several separate sites that all link to each other. This works especially well if you sell a number of different products or services. If you build a different site to focus on each of your products and services, then you can also concentrate the use of specific keyword phrases on each site. That's another great way to boost your search engine ranking.
View Source to Continue Reading: Search Engine Optimization
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