Web Matters

by: Chesa Keane

Finally, after the hard-core efforts that are directly related to generating traffic to your website, you next step is to develop a strategy that creates follow-on, long-term traffic. Several methods exist for this Tier III strategy:

- Taking the large list of ancillary keywords that relate directly or indirectly to your website, begin purchasing keyword related domain names that will be used to create traffic driving websites that point to your money site.

- Setup satellite pages using the keyword domain names with the idea of capturing traffic geared toward those specific keywords, developing niche market traffic. As you develop niche markets for those new customers, you are going to be able to capitalize on those customers for the other products and/or services that your company offers when these sites link back to your money site as a result of informing and attracting these new customers through the niche sites.

- Create links, backlinks and cross-links between the satellite pages and your money site, improving your link popularity for all websites, especially your money site.

- Display articles or e-books related to your industry and place these articles on your websites being aware of the best location based on keyword dominance.

- For long-term, viral marketing results, create articles or e-books that you will either sell on your website or offer to public domain websites where your link information must be retained for use by anyone else on the internet; these articles will create links that go back to your money site or your niche sites.

- Follow the same steps in Tier I and II for all the niche sites as you did for your original money site; that is, design a SEO-optimized website and follow Tier II strategy to create the necessary link popularity to drive traffic to these sites.

Monitoring

In order to determine if the SEO efforts are successful, you must monitor results of for number and quality of backlinks, PR and web trend statistics. There are many sources for generating this data as well as programs that will assist in these analyses. Whatever method you choose, whether it is using specific programs or setting up a spreadsheet for entry of data, be consistent in tracking the data. There will be fluctuations from day-to-day that you should expect. You are looking for general, overall upward trends, not short-term blips. Upward progress followed by maintenance of a strong position with slow, steady growth would indicate a successful SEO campaign.

This 3-Tiered approach to SEO Strategy is very effective when implemented with the patience it takes for long-term results. Short-term "fixes" and "tricks" may have an effect in the short-run, but as the search engines change and adapt their algorithms -- as they doing almost monthly -- what worked today for quick results may actually get you banned tomorrow. This strategy is based on search engine directives: Well-designed websites, free of bad code, offering information, services or products of interest to the internet community will create their own base of popularity -- for which you will be rewarded by strong, growing traffic. When you are in it for the long haul, your strategy must utilize long-term efforts.

(c)2005. TAO Consultants, Inc. All rights reserved.

About The Author
Chesa Keane of TAO Consultants has been involved with the internet for 10 years through internet consulting, web development and search engine optimization. Go to www.computergoddess.com for a free Search Engine Optimization Checklist.

by: Chesa Keane

Consider implementing these strategies:

- Dynamic content is necessary for search engine recognition, and by updating the website frequently, the search engines see your website as an active, not stagnate, website. How often should changes be made? At the very least, monthly. But the more frequent the changes, the better. There are some tried and true methods you may want to employ:

- Monthly newsletter (or weekly)

- Tip of the day that rotates to the page using a script from an existing database of information at your site

- RSS feed to public news feeds that update hourly or daily at the least

- Changes to contact information, staffing, clients, etc.

- Checking the links frequently to make sure that they are active and valid, and changing the link text from time to time will register as a change to the page

- Simple modification of content from time to time should be done in between these regular maintenance tasks which will update the website

- Good links management will result in a stronger weight given by the search engines for search positioning. The algorithms used for weighting one page over another require link popularity assessment for successful traffic to your website. Link popularity is also one of the main considerations for Google and Alexa Page Rank. How do you achieve link popularity? It can be tedious and requires careful attention to the selection of the links, but there are several means that can be employed:

- Reciprocal Links - Search for relevant and desired web pages with which to trade links

- Purchase Page Rank-based links - boost your relevance and weight in the eyes of search engines by purchasing links for a period of time, three to six months until you have achieved a better ranking

- List with directories - paid or unpaid directory listing that are relevant to your website will give your website additional exposure

- Anchor text - create the links with link text in mind, utilizing relevant keywords where possible

- PageRank consideration - link only with websites that have decent PageRank (PR); i.e., PR of 3 could be a minimum but a PR of 4 would be a better minimum requirement from those pages who want to exchange links with you

- Blogs - web logs linked to your site or posting to popular blogs with your links included to point traffic back to your site; a good strategy is to employ pinging with the blog posting

- Forums - forum participation that allows you to leave your link with the intent of attracting traffic back to your site can get traffic back to your website, however, take care that you actually offer something of value in your posting so you are not accused of spamming

- Search engine listings - listing with the few free search engines and directories is an essential step, although you won't see any results for months

- Gather opt-in email addresses - utilize an email list subscription function on your website with the intent of sending e-newsletters and announcements on a regular basis. This subscription list can be used for several other campaigns, including the sale of advertising space on your newsletter.

- Advertise on ezines - purchase sponsorship on other email lists where you can promote your product and/or services as well as links to your website in the process.

- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns with Google and Yahoo Search Marketing where you purchase advertising space based on keywords that are popular for your website if you are not in a saturated market. If your business operates in a saturated internet market, seek niche keywords for your PPC advertising. Determine your budget first and from there, you will know how much you can afford for the positioning you desire. It's all mathematical:

- Price Per Click = monthly budget/number of clicks or

- Number of clicks = monthly budget/price per click

Some suitable combination of price and number of clicks based on your own budget will result in a campaign you can monitor and adjust as necessary. The important result to watch for is the conversion rate. How many paid clicks convert into the desired result; i.e., new contract, sale of product, sign up for e-newsletter, etc.

Remember that the website is only the first step. Driving traffic to your site is the next important task. Layout a plan of action and follow-through. You are not going to realize success until you spend the time and energy - or pay someone else for their time and energy - to get the job done.

(c)2005. TAO Consultants, Inc. All rights reserved.

About The Author
Chesa Keane of TAO Consultants has been involved with the internet for 10 years through internet consulting, web development and search engine optimization. Go to www.computergoddess.com for a free Search Engine Optimization Checklist.

by: Chesa Keane

Creating a well-designed website is the first step in your internet marketing strategy. Once the website has been created and optimized, there are further techniques to employ that will drive traffic to your website for successful, long-term results. You wouldn't consider opening a retail store in a major shopping mall without signage and you shouldn't consider having a nice looking website designed without expanding your web presence in order to be found on the internet. But unless the website is designed correctly to begin with, follow-on SEO efforts will have limited results at best. The following strategy overview is designed to bring about productive SEO results:

- Create an attractive website that is complementary to your company image and provides your targeted audience with information about you, your company and your products and/or services.

- Design a website that has a call-to-action in the form of a purchase or providing you a contact, subscription or other commitment from your visitor.

- Create a successful marketing arm for your overall business promotion and marketing campaign to promote your business, products and/or services with the many follow-on strategies that drive traffic to your website.

- Become competitive in your industry and marketplace by meeting or exceeding the industry marketing standards and attracting a qualified audience for your products and/or services based on a strong reputation.

- Generate and maintain or grow internet traffic to your website resulting in a conversion of traffic into sales of your products and/or services by evolving as your market demands.

This search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is composed of several processes in three stages: 1) Good web design, 2) Attracting attention from search engines and directories, and 3) Creating long-term popularity on the internet. However, it all starts with good web design. Website design is the foundation and beginning of a successful internet marketing strategy. It is true that there are websites on the internet that are unattractive but somehow seem to work. If there are aspects of these websites that work, imagine how well they could do if they simply followed basic design implementation tactics that resulted in a good image as well as simply pushed information out to the viewer.

These basics are essential for Tier 1 success:

- Good web design will complement and enhance the company image and offline marketing campaign products creating a corporate branding if done well.

- Easy, logical navigation that leads the viewer deeper and deeper into the web of information provided by the website will keep the visitor on your site longer and give you more time to sell your products or services.

- Attractive but quick-loading graphics that are pleasing to the eye and meaningful to the website will guide the viewer along the route you decide is important for explaining what you offer.

- Keyword usage that is search engine-friendly depends on how the keywords are utilized, the placement of the keywords, the frequency of the most important keywords and their relevance to the website.

- Website coding that is lean, clean and without errors will keep the search engines happy and your viewer seeing exactly what you intended to offer.

- Relevance of content to the theme of the site is essential. Be concise, to the point and focus on your goals. If you have multiple themes and offerings, consider multiple websites to address the different markets, then tie each website back to the others by linking.

- Changing content that changes frequently and stays fresh keeps your viewer returning and prevents the search engines from treating your website as if it were stale news. A stale site will be ranked lower by the search engines.

Content is king -- it's all about content, content, content. But how that content is presented is what makes the difference.

(c)2005 TAO Consultants, Inc. All rights reserved.

About The Author
Chesa Keane of TAO Consultants has been involved with the internet for 10 years through internet consulting, web development and search engine optimization. Go to www.computergoddess.com for a free Search Engine Optimization Checklist.

by: Darryl Antonio

And more importantly why do you need it?

I've taken the liberty to break down this white paper into a few digestible sections. Please feel free to scamper across to the most relevant section that interests you

Table of contents:

1. So, what is SEO?

2. Why is it so important?

3. The 3 things you must do?

4. Who can you trust?

5. What can you expect to achieve?

SO, WHAT IS SEO?

SEO or to use its' full acronym is Search Engine Optimisation. Lots has been said and written all over the net on this extremely demanding topic by every self-effacing Marketing expert today

Indeed, I'm sure if you trawl through a search on Google for the term SEO you will probably find countless entries on the subject and herein lies both the explanation and the ensuing problem

Confronted by a vast number of websites to pursue one's search further, an average searcher will click on perhaps 20 websites to find what he/she is looking for at best

So what happens if your website is ranked from say 30 or 40 or a 100 upwards? The chances are you will be one of the very lucky ones if your website receives any traffic worth mentioning at all

SEO at it's very core if applied correctly is designed to rank a website/webpage, for a pre-defined set of keywords, at the very top of the search engine thereby ensuring that a particular website has more chance of being clicked on than that of its' competitor's ranked below it

This then should mean that a website having been thus optimised naturally rises to the top of the search rankings for those specific keywords. Alas if only life was so simple!

Notice, I did say if correctly applied but how do you know what to optimise and how much to do?

Badly cobbled together webpages with too much optimisation or indeed too little unfortunately end up being either buried in the deep recesses of the results or get shelved by the search engines altogether

WHY IS IT SO IMPROTANT?

Imagine that you have a shop selling ice-cream on a very busy high street full of other ice-cream sellers, each one offering pretty much the same thing that you are

How do you go about attracting customers over your competitors. The answer is that in the real world it is much harder to jostle for the number 1 spot without spending a fortune on advertising, marketing and company branding

Fortunately, in cyberspace given the same scenario the playing field is somewhat easier and a whole lot cheaper too

The secret is getting your webpages right the first time around so that you can take full advantage of table topping rankings and great traffic as a result

But don't worry if you haven't enjoyed much success with your website to date, existing webpages can be tweaked and manipulated to become more search engine and visitor friendly

On page and off page SEO techniques can be applied to catapult your rankings to the very top of the free search engines bringing much needed traffic and more importantly an increase in revenue

Finally, there is also another knock on effect to better rankings but more on that at a later date...

THE 3 THINGS THAT YOU MUST DO?

This section applies to every website owner be it well-established or a fledgling start up

1. Evaluate - Always put yourself in the shoes of your potential site visitor. Looking at it from their perspective ask yourself these questions: Does your website/webpage have the necessary content to attract and keep their attention? Is your message clear, well thought-out? Do you have a strong call to action?

At first this may seem a rather difficult or tedious process, but I always advise my clients to spend some time on it simply because even if you do enjoy top rankings it doesn't always necessarily follow that your sales will also increase as a result

In time however, this will become a part of your thinking process naturally and will stand you in good stead when you decide to launch a new product online or a new website etc;

The key here is to provide the client with what they came to your website for in the first place and in so doing stimulate their buying interest at the same time

2. Monitor - In cyberspace a lot can happen very quickly. I'm sure that almost everyone must be aware of utter havoc created by the Google Florida updates in November of last year

Just to quickly recap, Google started enforcing their guidelines and had grown tired of those website owners using "spammy optimization" techniques and having little or no real content

Google claimed that the change was all part of their continued efforts to improve their search engine results

Some people thought however that it was an over optimization penalty, others a bug perhaps. Whatever it was, Google had upset a lot of people in the process

Apparently, Google understands the fact that people's businesses rely on Google results. Craig Nevill-Manning, Google's Senior Research Scientist, said, for what it's worth, "I apologize for the roller coaster. We're aware that changes in the algorithm affect people's livelihoods. We don't make changes lightly."

Needless to say that the Florida update caught a good many search engine professionals and online business owners off guard demoting previously high-ranking sites and relegating them to the netherworld of Google's search results

The moral of this is to monitor your rankings constantly, do not attempt half-baked spammy optimisation techniques - instead fill your pages with real content and every so often go check out Google's ranking criteria

3. Adapt - The internet marketplace is great place to tap into an ever hungry world wide audience. However, what happens when things go wrong and sadly they sometimes do?

Remember SARS or 9/11 and the ensuing fear of terrorism! It decimated the already sluggish travel industry at the time and while no can predict these events or for that matter what lies ahead with any deal of accuracy it might help to have some contingency plans in mind

For instance, when the fear of international travel was at its' height some companies better prepared than others turned their marketing and their websites to promoting internal travel

Suddenly these companies had access to an hitherto untapped audience interest and as a result grew their customer database and better still increased brand loyalty

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?

So, you've been spammed by innumerable so-say SEO "EXPERTS", all promising the holy grail in online marketing results for your website rankings

So, who do you trust?

As a rule of thumb it's always good to have a few key questions in mind before evaluating whether a company deserves your business or not such as:

a. how long has the company been around for?

b. who are their customers?

c. are they happy for you to talk directly to their customers? (this will usually sort the wheat from the chaff!)

d. the all important results - Can they supply proof of their claims?

And finally the clincher - ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR GUT INSTINCT!

WHAT CAN YOU REALISTICALLY EXPECT TO ACHIEVE?

With the right SEO techniques applied for both on page and off page factors, key selling pages can be turned around to rank highly in the search engines

More highly ranking pages will in turn bring in more unique visitors i.e. potential new customers and if nurtured correctly these new visitors/customers will go on to become loyal customers in the years ahead

Once these key pages begin to feature well, similar optimisation work can be done to subsidiary pages

The idea is to get as many of your webpages to rank as highly as possible thereby spreadbetting your supply options, generating the all important increase in traffic and also acting as a counter against any unforseen problems with search engine algorithm changes etc;

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell therefore, your key pages must have valid content presented in a way that both engages and motivates your target market audience and backed-up by a strong call to action

Get this basic principle of SEO right and your search engine rankings will almost take care of themselves

The bottom line is: Content is what it is really all about from both your target market and a search engine perspective

About The Author
Darryl Antonio is a SEM expert based in the UK. As an SEO Consultant for the past 7 years with http://www.loyal-e.com. He can be contacted at darryl@loyal-e.com for SEO Consultancy Projects & SEO Training Workshops & E-marketing Campaigns.
darryl@loyal-e.com