Moe Tamani's Internet Marketing and SEO Blog, Articles and Search Engine Optimization Tips » link exchange

4 Keys to Link-Building for SEO

Seomul Evans — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:38:54 +0000

4 Keys to Link-Building for SEO

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Any SEO expert will tell you that there are a number of ways to build inbound links to your website, an activity known in the SEO world as “link-building.” Some are more effective and efficient than others, however. Here are four.

1.Article Marketing. Article marketing is not only a great SEO tool for getting inbound links, but it also serves other purposes as well. First, it helps you create great content for your website. Second, it helps you establish yourself as an authority in your field. But for the purpose of inbound links, article marketing is exceptionally effective. When you write an article and submit it to an article directory, you have the opportunity to fill out what is known as a “resource box.” Within the resource box is a place to enter your business website. And since the search engines reward inbound links from well-established, well-respected websites with higher results, you increase your ranking simply by submitting your article.

2.Social Media. Believe it or not, social media sites are a great resource for inbound links. If you are interested in using social media in this way, simply add the AddThis Bookmark to your website. It’s an easy way to notify your readers that you’d like them bookmark your content on the social media sites. This means that your readers are essentially building your inbound links on your behalf, and it doesn’t get much easier than that. Even if you’re not an avid user of social media sites, and you should be if you’re serious about SEO, this is a pretty painless social media tool that can net big results.

3.Google Alerts. Figure out which keywords you’re promoting in your SEO efforts and then sign up to get Google Alerts for each of those keywords. Every time a new page or site is created that has the keywords that you’re optimizing for, go to that page or site and leave a comment with a link back to your own page. The obvious caveat is that you should never do this unless you can appropriately contribute your voice to the conversation. If you act overeager, you’ll turn off the very people you’re hoping to attract. The whole point of using Google Alerts for building inbound links is that you want to find a way to become part of a larger community that’s talking about your product or service. The more you can naturally become part of that community by offering good advice and by listening to what others have to say, the more visitors you’ll attract to your own site. People will be intrigued by your offerings and will want to know more about you. And that’s good for business.

4.Press Releases. Press Releases certainly aren’t the cheapest way to get inbound links, but they certainly are effective. The advantage of press releases for SEO and link-building is that you can put your links in body of the release using keyword-rich anchor text. When other sites pick up your release, you’re automatically receiving inbound links from authoritative, relevant sources, and this is richly rewarded by the search engines.

Link-building is an invaluable SEO tool, and one with which you should familiarize yourself if you haven’t already. Search engines give higher rankings to website that contain both good content as well as inbound links from relevant sites. There are a number of ways to go about getting inbound links, but there are several that stand out as being particularly effective. Spend some time learning more about press releases, Google Alerts, social media, and article marketing, and learn what those activities can do to bolster your SEO efforts and drive more traffic to your site. An SEO expert or internet marketing professional can also help you in your link-building efforts, so don’t hesitate to take advantage of their expertise!

SEO: 5 Tools for Analyzing Your Website

Seomul Evans — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:39:25 +0000

SEO: 5 Tools for Analyzing Your Website

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

You may have performed every SEO trick in the book, but if you’re website isn’t converting then all of your SEO efforts are for naught. Fortunately, there are some really great tools available that will help you analyze your website and make it perform for you. Here are five:

1.SEO Analyzer: This is a free tool that provides a lot of helpful information. All you have to do is enter your URL and wait a few seconds for the tool to give you all the information you need to improve your site’s optimization. And at the end you get an overall score on a 100-point scale. Not only this, but it gives you a report on every aspect of your website, including inline styles, obsolete HTML, and download time. There are certainly some more comprehensive tools available, but few are as good as this one for the money! It also uses different languages, making it helpful for businesses all over the world.

2.Website Grader: This is another free tool that works in much the same way as SEO Analyzer. It provides a great deal of detail in a short amount of time, although it takes a little longer than SEO Analyzer, and tells you all you need to know about optimizing your site, making your SEO efforts easier and less time-consuming. In addition to the information provided by SEO Analyzer, this tool tells you how many del.ici.ous bookmarks you have, as well as grading both on-site and off-site SEO. In the end you get a badge to post on your website that will tell your visitors what grade you were awarded.

3.AWStats: This is more of a log analyzer than an analytics tool, but it still provides valuable information…and it’s free. Like SEO Analyzer, it is available in multiple languages. It’s primarily helpful if you’re wondering who’s visiting, what search engines your visitors use, and when your visitors are showing up to your site.

4.Crazy Egg: There are three different versions of Crazy Egg to choose from. The standard version costs nothing, while the other two do cost a little bit. Crazy Egg allows you to see what visitors do when they get to your site. It even has a heatmap to show you the exact mouse movements made by your visitors. The heatmap helps you see exactly where on your site your visitors make the most movements. This sounds complicated, but it’s actually quite simple and easy to use.

5.Mint: Mint is the only tool listed here that isn’t free, but $30 is money that you’ll recoup in increased traffic once you take advantage of the invaluable information that Mint can provide. Mint gives you great information like unique referrers, popular pages, and number of visits. Compared to the free tools available, $30 might seem a little steep, but the information provided by Mint is exceptionally helpful.

While analytic tools can potentially be very helpful, some business owners don’t feel that they understand enough about the tools to make the most of the information they have to offer. If you find yourself feeling this way, don’t hesitate to contact an SEO expert or internet marketing professional. These folks have a solid understanding of analytical tools and how to use them. They can tell you which tools will be most helpful for you, and they can help you make changes to your website based on the information provided by the tools. So don’t hesitate to get professional help. You simply can’t afford to maintain an under-performing website, especially when your competitors are doing everything they can to get traffic to their sites using the most innovative, cutting-edge tools available.

Search Engine Optimization: 4 Keys to Convincing Visitors That You’re “The One”

Seomul Evans — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:38:02 +0000

Search Engine Optimization: 4 Keys to Convincing Visitors That You’re “The One”

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Article marketing is a key component of search engine optimization and one that business owners ignore to their detriment. Article marketing is important because it can result in multiple backlinks to your website, which increases your search engine ranking, and because it helps you establish yourself as an authority in your field and therefore someone that your potential customers will want to do business with. Newcomers to the concept of article marketing may find the prospect intimidating, however, and there are several reasons why. The first is that they may not know what to write about. The second is that they simply might not understand how critical article marketing can be to the success of their search engine optimization efforts. If you’re not sure what to write about or how to optimize the effectiveness of your articles, here are 3 tips to get you started.

1.Educate. If you’re already doing business selling a product or service, then there’s no doubt that you’re an expert in the field. One of the most valuable and helpful things that experts can do is to educate other people who want to know more. Write articles about topics related to your product or service, and make sure those articles pass along ample amounts of the knowledge that you’ve gained over the years of learning about and marketing your own product. “How to” articles are a great way to get started. Not only do they allow you to pass on valuable information, but they lend themselves toward formatting with bullets or numbers. This kind of formatting is optimal because it breaks your information into manageable bits that your readers can digest easily and quickly. They also help you establish your expertise in your field. The more readers feel they can trust your information, the more likely they are to purchase your products or services.

2.Utilize the resource box. Each time you submit an article you have the opportunity to complete a resource box that appears below your article. The resource box allows you to enter information about you and your company, as well as a link back to your website. This link is a powerful tool. Not only will search engines give you credit for that particular link, but you’ll get credit for links from every other site that posts your article as well. Make sure your resource box includes your name, a short biography, a compelling reason for your reader to visit your website, and your website address.

3.Consistency. The key to article marketing is consistency. You can’t make the most of article marketing simply by posting one article and then forgetting about it altogether. Create a plan to create and submit articles on a regular basis. Chances are that your efforts won’t pay off for up to four to 5 months, but if you are consistent you will eventually see the results. Search engines give credit for backlinks every few months, so even though you may be accumulating a number of backlinks to your website, the search engines may not be giving you credit for them. But when you do get credit for them, you’ll see a big difference in your ranking. Submitting a few articles won’t make a big difference, but submitting a few articles every few weeks may make the difference you’ve been looking for. Remember that slow and steady wins the race. Don’t give up just because you don’t get a big payoff right away.

Article marketing is a great search engine optimization tool, but only if you stick with it, use articles to establish your expertise and authority in your field, and utilize all the aspects of article directories to their fullest potential. So don’t wait any longer to make article marketing part of your SEO strategy.

SEO and Article Marketing: The Anatomy of a Good Article

Seomul Evans — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:37:24 +0000

SEO and Article Marketing: The Anatomy of a Good Article

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Few internet marketers are unaware of the importance of article marketing to their SEO efforts. But many internet marketers neglect this important tool because they feel that they don’t have anything good to say, they feel that they can’t write well enough, or they just simply don’t want to do it. But article marketing is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. Not only do you increase your search engine rankings by getting quality links to your website, but you gain credibility with your target market because they feel that you have something important and relevant to say about your industry. Here are three keys to writing a good article that will get you and your business noticed:

1.Pick a Good Title. The title should clarify the subject of the article. If you don’t clearly communicate your article’s topic in the title, you’ll serve only to confuse and frustrate your audience. The title sets up expectations about the content, so be sure to meet those expectations in your writing. Your title should also include your primary keyword for which you’re doing SEO. If you’re optimizing for a phrase, make sure that the phrase includes no more than three words. If possible, include a secondary keyword in the title as well.

2.Write a Good Opening Paragraph. If your title was compelling enough to catch a reader’s eye, then you’ve already done some good work. Continue that work by writing a quality opening paragraph. The opening paragraph should take your title and expand on it, and should outline for your readers what they should expect to learn by reading your article. This is the key for marketing yourself as an expert in your field. People will judge your competence and your professionalism based on how much valuable information you can provide in your article.

3.Keep the Reader Reading. The body of the article should tell the readers what you told them that you were going to tell them. In other words, this is where you ultimately deliver on the promises you made in your opening paragraph. Your concluding paragraph should summarize the article and should be just as compelling as your opening paragraph. Readers will often skim an article, reading only the first and last paragraphs, in order to decide whether the whole thing is worth reading. So don’t peter out at the end and leave your reader with a weak conclusion.

4.Summary. This is separate from your article, but you should never underestimate its importance. It may be the only thing a potential reader reads, so make sure it will motivate your readers to check out the entire article. And don’t forget the resource box. This is most important part of the whole process for SEO purposes. The resource box gives you the opportunity to link back to your site and thus build up the quality inbound links that search engines value so much.

If you’re still not sure how to go about getting started in article marketing, spend some time looking at article directories. Find the articles that have been viewed the most and take your cues from those authors. What is their writing style? What do they write about? Are they formal or informal? Do they use technical language or language that laypeople would understand? You’ll learn a lot simply by observing what other successful people do. And if that isn’t enough help, consider talking to an internet marketer. An internet marketer or SEO expert can help you determine how to integrate article marketing into your overall marketing plan so that your search engine rankings will increase, more traffic will visit your site, and your revenues will increase!

SEO and Conversion Rates: 9 Points to Consider

Seomul Evans — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:36:25 +0000

SEO and Conversion Rates: 9 Points to Consider

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

In the end, the number of visitors to your site isn’t nearly as important as the number of visitors who actually become your customers. This statistic, also called a conversion rate, can be greatly impacted by SEO, or search engine optimization. Here are 9 points to consider if you plan to use SEO to increase your conversion rate:

1.Watch the competition. Find out your competitors’ conversion rates. How do they compare to yours? If your competitors have higher conversion rates than you do then it may be time to consider what steps you need to take in order to increase yours. SEO can have a huge impact on conversions, so rather than making excuses about why your conversion numbers are low, start optimizing!

2.Be Careful How You Use Testing. Testing can reveal a great deal of helpful information, but it’s not the same as optimizing. In fact, it’s probably best to think of testing as the last step in a successful optimization process.

3.Do Something Now. There’s always room to improve your conversion rate, so do one thing today that will make a difference. Use your web analytics to find out which of your pages have high bounce rates and then fix those pages. This is a great time to call on the help of an SEO expert or internet marketing professional who can pinpoint the exact problem. This will save a lot of time and effort on your part.

4.Admit it When You’re Wrong. SEO is not an exact science. Sometimes optimization approaches work and sometimes they don’t, depending on a host of factors. So if you’ve tried one approach that doesn’t work, try something else. You’re only hurting yourself and your business if you insist on sticking with a strategy that’s not helping, or even hurting, your conversion rate.

5.Don’t Be a Copycat. Just because a strategy works for another business doesn’t mean it will work for you. Feel free to try different strategies, but don’t assume that SEO is a cookie cutter process.

6.Trust the Professionals. If you decide to pursue services from an SEO professional, seriously consider what he or she has to say, even if you don’t think it will work. These are people who have years of experience under their belts, and who can actually show you whether or not something works with testing, so at least give it a shot. This doesn’t mean that you should unequivocally trust a professional whom you feel is leading you astray, but in most cases it’s in your best interest to give him a shot.

7.Commit Yourself. . Remember that SEO isn’t a magic bullet. It takes time to produce results and it requires a commitment to keeping the SEO process going for a long time. So if you don’t see results immediately, don’t give up. Stick with it, try multiple strategies, and soon you’ll see improvements in your conversion rats.

8.Start Early. The best time to optimize your site is in the process of creating it. This saves an unbelievable amount of time, money, and hassle. Consult an SEO expert early in the game to help you construct a website that’s optimized from the very beginning.

9.Learn to Love the Quickie. Take your laptop to a friend’s house one evening and ask her to go through the process of ordering from your website. This is a great test of usability and gives you a place to start if you aren’t sure how to start the optimization process.

If you’re not converting your visitors, you need to do something. You need to do something now. Contact an SEO professional to help you pinpoint your trouble areas and fix them. You’ll see an increase in conversion rates—and profits!

SEO, Keyword Research, and Inbound Links

Seomul Evans — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:34:30 +0000

SEO, Keyword Research, and Inbound Links

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

If you’re really serious about your SEO efforts, then you need to know exactly which words people will type into the search engines when looking for products and services similar to the ones you are selling. These are called keywords, and they are the focal point of most SEO. Now, you probably already know that one of the most important ways to drive traffic to your website is by getting plenty of inbound links. Since the search engines reward websites with multiple inbound links from relevant, authoritative websites, it’s in your best interest to get as many links to your site as possible. Even more important, however, is getting inbound links that contain the keywords for which you have optimized your pages.

For the sake of example, we’ll pretend that your website is about unicycles. You build unicycles, repair unicycles, and teach people how to ride them. You’ll probably have a difficult time getting a high ranking for a search that only uses the word unicycles. But if you can figure out other that people use to search for the products and services that you offer, then you probably have a chance of getting high rankings for those. Here are the next steps you should take in your SEO keyword efforts:

1.Narrow down your keywords. There are several great tools available for doing keyword research. Pick your favorite and type in the keyword around which you plan to optimize your page. In just seconds you’ll see a whole list of the words and phrases that people use most often to find products or services like the ones you offer.

2.Find Successful Keywords. Google’s Adwords tool is great for this. When you type a keyword into the box and press Enter, you’ll end up with a whole list of keywords that are related to the one that you typed in. You’ll also get a whole list of other keywords that might work for you. You’ll see little bars under the heading of Advertiser Competition. Pick one or two words whose bars are less than half green. Those are the words that have less competition that the ones whose bars are mostly green.

3.Check out the Competition. Once you’ve found two or three keywords and phrases in the previous step, go to Google and type in: inanchor:“the keyword I just picked.” All the pages that you see are those with whom you would be in competition for the keyword or phrase that you just chose. You’ll notice that the list is much shorter than the list you saw when you just typed in unicycles.

4.Build Your Backlinks. Once you’ve chosen your keywords and optimized your pages around those keywords, it’s time to build some backlinks, another very important SEO task. Much has been written on effective ways to build backlins, but three of the most obvious are including a link to your webpage in your signature file and then posting to forums that are related to your product or service, commenting on blogs and leaving a link back to your webpage, and engaging in article marketing strategies.

Keyword research is one of the most important SEO tasks that you will undertake, so be careful that you don’t give it short shrift. And if you’re really serious about SEO, then consider consulting with an internet marketing expert to discuss the keyword research that you’ve done and to get pointers on optimizing your pages around your chosen keywords. These professionals can also help you build quality backlinks to your site, which will results in higher search engine rankings and therefore more traffic to your site. When you see what a different a little keyword research can make in the success of your business, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t done it sooner!

SEO and Link Building: 5 Considerations

Seomul Evans — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:33:01 +0000

SEO and Link Building: 5 Considerations

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

If you have researched SEO at all then you understand the importance of link building for increasing your search engine rank and thus driving traffic to your website. Inbound links are a major consideration of search engines when determining your search engine rank, so the more inbound links you have from high-quality, authoritative websites, the better. Inbound links also increase your exposure on other sites, and exposure is exactly what you need if you’re going to increase your traffic. Here are 5 considerations for link building.

1.Make a Top Ten: People love lists. Lists allow you to place important information in a format that’s easy to read and easy to digest. And they give the impression that you’re able to consolidate a lot of pertinent information into a few succinct points. If you want to use a Top Ten list as an SEO or link building tool, contact other business owners in your niche and let them know about the list you’ve created. If all goes well, and if they consider your information helpful and relevant, they will link to it from their own site.

2.Article Marketing. If you write a high-quality article, chances are that other website owners will publish it on their own blogs. This both increases your inbound links and increases your exposure, establishing your credibility as a knowledgeable professional in your field. If you really want article marketing to work for you as a link building tool, you have to create compelling copy for your resource box.

3.Social Bookmarks. There are many social bookmarking sites to choose from, so do a little research and find out which sites other professionals within your market niche use. Then create accounts for each of those sites and bookmark your blog and website pages. Like article marketing, this is a good way to both establish your credibility and increase the number of inbound links to your site.

4.Blog. There are a number of free blog platforms to choose from, so pick the one that you like best and start blogging. Then create some relevant content about your product or service and post it on the blog. Link to your website from your blog. This will increase your search engine ranking since search engines will see that your blog contains content relevant to that which is already on your website. You can increase your exposure even more by commenting on other popular blogs within your niche. Commenting on other blogs is tricky, though. You want to demonstrate enough expertise to compel other blog readers to click on your link back to your site without pitching your products in an obnoxious way. Use comments with care.

5.Google Alerts. Google alerts let you choose keywords of interest to you, and then emails you any stories, blog posts, and articles that are related to those keywords. If any of the alerts you receive show content related to your website, find out if the source of that content allows you to leave comments. If it was an online newspaper article, for instance, you could leave a comment with a link back to your website. This increases your inbound links while letting other commenters know you have something worthwhile and relevant to say about news relating to your business.

One of the worst mistakes to make in the process of SEO is ignoring the importance of link building. Inbound links are given great value by the search engines and can go a long way in increasing your search engine rankings. If link building continues to elude you or if you have further questions, contact an internet marketer or SEO professional to help you increase your inbound links, drive traffic to your site, and increase your profits…all in no time!

SEO: The 3 Keys to Marketing Your Website

Seomul Evans — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:16:11 +0000

SEO: The 3 Keys to Marketing Your Website

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

Even if you haven’t yet turned yourself into an SEO expert you can still start marketing your business in a way that will help you see results quickly. The key to a good marketing campaign is ensuring that it is targeted, consistent, and intelligent. A targeted marketing campaign is aimed at attracting people who are already interested in your product or service, who have already done their research, and who are just about ready to make a purchase. These individuals are crucial to your marketing plan because they are the ones who are actively deciding where to purchase the product or service that they’re seeking. You want them to find you, of course, and become your loyal customer. A consistent campaign helps you build your authority with your target audience so that they begin to trust you and therefore your product or service. Finally, a smart marketing campaign means that you use several different strategies, including SEO, to attract potential customers to your website. Here are three great marketing strategies for you to focus on:

1. Social Networking. This is a key to creating a targeted marketing campaign. Social networking allows you to participate in online community made up of people who shared your interests. In this case your interests would obviously revolve around the product or service that you’re offering. Choose several networks at first. Once you get the hang of it and feel that you can consistently participate, you can join more later. Complete a profile and start interacting with other people in the online community. One of the keys to using social networking is to make sure that you’re a participant, not a salesperson or advertiser. In order for social networking to work for you, you have to be a helpful part of the community. People want to see you as a relevant participant before they will ever decide to do business with you.

2.Article Marketing and Blogging. Article marketing is both a great authority-building tool and SEO tool. It’s a great SEO tool because each time you submit an article to an article directory, you have the opportunity to link back to your own site in the resource box, and search engines place a premium on inbound links from authoritative sources. It’s a great authority-building tool because articles give you the opportunity to show your target audience that you know what you’re talking about and are a trustworthy businessperson. And every time you submit an article to a directory, you should also publish it to your business blog. Search engines reward sites that consistently publish fresh material, so make both article marketing a blogging an integral part of your marketing campaign.

3.Keywords. Each page of your website should be optimized for one or two keywords. This means that your keywords should be placed strategically in your title, your headers, and your tags. The content on your page should also contain several instances of your keywords as well. Search engines value content that is relevant to your product or service, and will give your site higher rankings if it deems your content relevant and helpful. And the higher your search engine rankings, the more traffic you can expect at your site, and you’ll start to notice higher profits!

These are just three ways to construct and targeted, intelligent, and consistent internet marketing campaign. If you’d like more information about how to go about marketing your business online, consult an SEO expert or internet marketing professional. These people will help you create a successful internet marketing campaign that uses the best tools and strategies available, and then they’ll help you implement it so that all of your hard work will pay off in the end. So don’t wait! Start your campaign today and enjoy your success!

10 On-Site SEO Essentials

Seomul Evans — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:12:05 +0000

10 On-Site SEO Essentials

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

SEO experts and internet marketers alike will tell you that the two most important factors in successful search engine optimization are good content and relevant links. But a savvy online business owner should never underestimate the importance of on-site SEO factors as well. Here are ten to which you should pay close attention when you are optimizing your webpage.

1.Description Tags: The description tags on your website will be used by search engines to describe your content on the search engine results page. Thus your description should be compelling to the user so that he or she will click on your site as opposed to the competition.

2.Title Tags: This is probably the most obvious on-site optimization tool, but is often ignored by online business owners. Each title tag on your website should be short and unique, and should contain the keywords for which you are optimizing on that particular page.

3.Heading Tags: Each page should have a heading that uses one or two keywords to describe the page’s content. The most important heading should, of course, have an H1 tag. H2, H3, H4, and so on should be reserved for your subheadings.

4.Anchor Text: If you’re serious about SEO, then you need to pay attention not only to anchor text in external links, but also in internal links. Your anchor text for internal links should use keywords and keyphrases; otherwise, how do you expect a search engine to reward you for relevance if you don’t even reward yourself through optimized anchor text?

5.Filenames: Each page in your website should be named using the keyword or keyphrases for which you are optimizing that particular page

6.HTML Sitemap: Your website should definitely include an HTML sitemap to help search engines when they are indexing your website. If your website consists of a large number of webpages then you should arrange your sitemap using categories. If you just create one long list of pages then you’re not helping your visitors navigate your website, and usability is really one of your ultimate goals.

7.XML Sitemap: You should have an .xml file that contains a list of the URLs used in your website. This file should then be submitted to the search engines. This file will help search engines when they are trying to index your website.

8.Navigation: Instead of linking from every page on your website to every other page on your website, choose the most important pages from which to link from your homepage. The categorize each of your other pages to go with each of the most important subpages that you have just chosen. This helps the search engines understand which pages you consider to have the greatest value.

9.No Follow: Let’s say that you want to link from your website to some helpful information you’ve found on another website, but that you can’t vouch for the entirety of the website to which you are linking. Simply add a no-follow attribute. This tells Google to ignore your link, which is helpful if it’s possible that the overall quality of the page to which you’re linking is not terribly high.

10.Content: As mentioned before, on of the most important elements of on-site SEO is content. But unlike link creation, you have 100% control over the content on your page. The key to content is to write relevant, unique, helpful copy that your visitors will find engaging and useful. Equally important is updating your page with fresh content on a regular basis. Search engines pay attention to pages that update content frequently, so this is one of the most important things you can do to get spiders to notice your page.

The caveat is this: don’t just add content for the sake of adding content. Make sure the information you’re adding is relevant and useful. You waste everyone’s time by updating your page with random content that isn’t much help to anyone.

Small Business and SEO: Creating a Good Website

MoeTamani — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:26:52 +0000

Small Business and SEO: Creating a Good Website

internet marketing Articles from Moe Tamani, the SEO Services Consultant.

There’s no denying the importance of maintaining a good website if you want your small business to get ahead. SEO is certainly critical for the success of your business, but what good is getting your website to the top of the search engine rankings if the traffic that lands on your website doesn’t find anything there worth sticking around for? Many people check out a company’s website before deciding to do business with the company, simply because the quality of a website can say a lot about the business itself. Is the website maintained well? Does it look professional? These are all key factors in determining whether your business is worth taking a second look at. Here are 5 keys to a great website.

1.Update. Whether or not you update your website sends a strong message to a potential customer about what kind of business you’re running. If your information is out of date, then the visitor isn’t going to find the relevant information he or she is looking for. If it uses old technology, then you run the risk of giving the impression that you’re not familiar with new technology that makes doing business more efficient. And leaving outdated information on your website simply makes you look indifferent to that aspect of your presentation. If you’re really concerned about your customer and about the general perception of your business, then you’ll update your content and your technology regularly.

2.SEO. You’re not going to do much business if your potential customers can’t find your website in the first place, so make sure that SEO is your primary focus from the beginning. If you’re not familiar with SEO, or if you simply don’t feel you have to time to dedicate to it, then contact an SEO professional to help you. It’s an investment in your business that can mean the different between success and failure.

3.Flash and Images. Many small businesses are convinced that Flash-based sites are the way to go. The problem with Flash- and image-based sites, however, is that search engines can’t see them. Thus any SEO efforts applied to them are all for naught. Not only this, but they are expensive to maintain, they’re difficult to update, and they’re not WC3 compliant. If you currently have a Flash-based or image-based website, you need to convert it immediately to a standards-based website. If you’re not sure how to do this, find a local professional to help you.

4.Splash Pages. Everyone is in a hurry…this includes your potential customers. Few internet users have time to wait for your splash page or intro page, to eliminate it altogether. Otherwise you risk your visitors leaving your website immediately once they see that they’re going to have to wait. You want to make it as easy as you can for your visitors to find what they’re looking for, so no matter how awesome you think your intro page looks, get rid of it so that you’re customers can get down to business finding your products and services, not waiting for access to your website.

5.Too Much Talk. You are obviously excited about your company and the products and services it has to offer or else you wouldn’t be in business. But make sure that, in the process of talking about your company, you focus on exactly what your company can do for your target audience. The people who visit your website want to know what your product or service can do to enhance their lives, not about the history of the company. Limit information about the company to one page so that visitors can read it or skip it depending on their interest.

SEO is important, but if visitors find your page cumbersome, distracting, or difficult to navigate then they won’t stick around long enough to become customers.