Make It Easy for Search Engines To Find You

Here is the way to set up website text to give yourself a head start with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

How the search engines find out if you’re site is relevant to a search is by checking two things:

1. Repetition of a keyword – Keyword Density

2. Popularity – How many other sites refer to your site.

I’m only going to cover Keyword Density in this post.

Here’s How to Structure each of Your Site’s Pages

(By the way, I have not written this post here so it gets ranked, this post is only for your information. I will give you an example of a page emulating these traits at the end of this post)

Our Example Longtail Keyword Phrase is “Orange County Tennis” It is often easy to rank for keywords that have under 10,000 Competing Pages when you structure your text on your website like this…

YOUR URL

Orange-County-Tennis.com

Exampleurl.com/Orange-County-Tennis

If you are starting from scratch, purchase a url that has the keywords you want to rank for, each word separated by a dash.

If you are creating/renaming a page on your existing Url then use the longtail keywords with dashes in between like this exampleurl.com/orange-county-tennis

Putting dashes makes it easy for the search engines to distiguish the separate words.

TITLE TAG

This is the text that is on the tab of the page when the page is open in a browser (a browser is Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox,  etc). When you look at the Title Tag of this post (click on the post heading to get to this post’s unique page) you’ll see “Make It Easy for Search Engines To Find You Marketing Ideas for Small Business” as the Title tag. (remember, don’t use this page as an example though, read the next sentence)

The title tag needs your keywords first followed by secondary keywords such as…

Orange County Tennis | Tennis Lessons in Orange County| Tennis Coaching for Seniors, Juniors and Beginners in Orange County

This is perfect because often those secondary keyword phrases also get ranked if there is not much competition around.

THE FIRST WORDS ON THE PAGE

This is critical. You no doubt have a header with a picture so you have a few options to get your keywords into the first text. You could write it in above the header, or below the header.

The important thing is that your keywords are the first words on the page.

I have seen a few people using the technique of tagging their header like they tag pictures (Tagging is when you hover over a picture,  text shows up next to your cursor) which is another important SEO strategy.

THE TITLE OF YOUR PAGE OR ARTICLE

This is not the title tag, this is the title of what’s to come. Same rules as above, just put your main longtail keyword phrase first, such as…

Orange County Tennis for All Ages

THE FIRST SENTENCE OF YOUR TEXT AFTER THE HEADING

Again, ideally put the longtail keyword phrase first, as long as it makes sense to have it there (be careful not to write just for SEO in case your article doesn’t make sense) For example this would be fine…

Orange County is famous for tennis…

KEYWORD PHRASE REPETITION IN THE FIRST 250 WORDS OF THE BODY TEXT

This is what is called Keyword Density. Anywhere between 3-6% keyword density is perfect. There is argument out there is that only the first 250 words the search engines scan but I can not verify this but I know many SEO experts use that technique.

Obviously make sure your writing makes sense and don’t sacrifice your information just to make it keyword rich.

META TAGS

Be sure to put your main keyword phrase as a meta tag along with other keywords too (keep it to a minimum of three keyword phrases per page). Your web developer can do this for you.

If you are posting on a blog or writing for article marketing, don’t worry about metatags because it’s automatically done when you list ‘Tags’ for your post.

That’s it. Duplicate this for every new page you create and every blog post your write and those keyword optimized pages will be a lot closer to page one then most others

Some Examples:

http://learnfinancialplanning.com/make-money-online/

http://ezinearticles.com/?Jobs-For-Stay-at-Home-Mums&id=2579891

A few of my sources:

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm

Louise Allport tutorials

©Copyright JT&L Global Sydney Australia This may not be copied, whole or in part

Adwords Basics: What is Adwords?

Google Adwords is paid advertising on Google

To look at Google Adwords in action simply do a Google search on any topic, and where it says ‘sponsored links’ – those are the paid ads.

Costs vary from 5c a click all the way to $50 a click or more – but most markets have clicks prices between 1c and $5 on average.

When you advertise on search terms that are specific (relevant) and local (you specify what locality you want to advertise in) you are on the right track to paying lower cost per click.

To get started: simply open a Google Adwords account and follow the instructions.

Another Advertising Tip

If you want to stand out from the crowd and dominate your competition in your local area you should definately advertise in Yahoo.com and Msn.com paid advertising too. Not many businesses do this because most only stick with Google.

To give you an idea of figures, the split percentages as of January 2009 (stats by Nielsen Online) of search engine use are…

Google 62.8%        Yahoo 16.2%         Msn/Windows Live Search 11.2%

I recommend you pick up that good quality extra business in the other two search engines where you’re competition isn’t hanging around.

Spam: How To Prevent Problems when Bulk Emailing

Spam laws are based around the fact that you need to be able to prove you have someone’s permission to email them.

HOW TO GET PERMISSION:

1 Add a section to your businesses Terms and Conditions that your customer signs, informing them you will send out emails from time to time.

2.  Add a tick box to a forms asking ‘would you like to go on our email list for promotions and advice’.

3. Add to your website an ‘Opt in’ box where people can voluntarily sign up to your email promotions.

YOUR EMAILS

There are a number of things that you should included in an email in order to keep yourself from being picked up as spam and help you avoid any legal problems.

Those are:

In your emails you need to have:

1. Your business name

2. Your business address (A Post Office Box won’t do, it must be a physical address)

3. An unsubscribe link

So far this is what the CAN-SPAM Act sets as a standard.

Aweber is the favourite bulk mailing company to professional internet marketers.

Aweber keep to these guidelines and are strongly anti spam.

Spamming is illegal under United States law and you should check the law in your country. However, if you don’t know the law in your country be aware that the United States are ahead of most countries in terms of internet marketing so what ever happens there usually rolls on to happen in other countries years later.

My Disclaimer: Anything on this site is not legal advice. Please source your own legal council on these matters. I am not a lawyer. I am simply sharing my own experience and research with you.

AN EXAMPLE E-MAIL:

******************************************

You are receiving this email because you have
purchased a product from Exampleurl.com

If you think that you are receiving this information in error,

please click on our opt out link at the bottom of this

message.

If you have questions concerning this email or your

purchase please contact us on (phone Number)

or (email address)

========================

Business Name
55 Example St
Sydney, Nsw 2000

Australia

========================

If you no longer wish to receive communication from us

Unsubscribe Here

Did you get forwarded this email and

want to get on this List?

Click here to subscribe (unsubscribe anytime)

******************************************

AN EXAMPLE TO ADD TO YOUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

By purchasing anything from this website/our business you may receive promotional emails from time to time from us. You can unsubscribe anytime.

…

As an aside, I found this interesting article about how Spammers get email addresses… www.newcreations.net/webmaster/spam.html

©Copyright JT&L Global Sydney Australia This may not be copied, whole or in part

Visitor Tracking Statistics

Getting statistics on your website is vital.

I use www.statcounter.com for my websites because it is free and the results are thorough

The information you’ll get with statcounter is:

- keywords people type into google and yahoo to find your site
- the country visitors are from
- how long they spend on your website
- what links they click on
- charts and graphs

- And more…

Try it out for yourself by going to www.statcounter.com

If you would like help installing code into your website contact us.

Images on Your Webpages

Images show up in search engines when they are tagged properly.

How To Tag Your Pictures

Use your Long Tail Keyword you are using on each page as the Title and Alternate Text of your picture

For Example:

Title: Orange County Tennis

Alternate Text: Orange County Tennis

This used in combination with my suggestions from my previous post on Seo will help you get found by search engines easier.

Market Research: Trend Results from Google

Market research online is fast and very revealing when you know where to go.

Google Trends is a free site from Google that allows you to research where the market is heading for any search term typed in to Google from 2004 onwards.

Tips for Using Google Trends To Improve your Business…

Comparative Charts

If you type in a comma between two or three different search terms it will show a comparison chart of the search terms.

For Example: Horse Riding Equipment, Saddlery

You can see which search term is more popular and whether it is going up in popularity or down.

Causes For Increased Search Volume

Some spikes in the charts (indicating search volume) show letters hovering above them Eg. A, B etc.

On the right of the page you will see the corresponding letters with links that show you why there was an increased search volume that month.

For Example: There might have been a major press release; a new product launched; a legal inquiry; a celebrity scandal etc.

Country Comparisons

You can see search volume comparisons from all over the world.

You can narrow down results to States by clicking on the country.

For Example: Find out what US state has the highest searches for horse riding gear and then you can target that market specifically to save advertising costs, or use that information to choose narrower keywords for easy SEO.

Language

Language display gives you valuable information about who searches for your product.

You can potentially use this information to increase sales by translating your web content (and google ads) into a foreign language. This is a fast way to increase your sales if you sell digital or universally used products online.

Go To: http://google.com/trends

Another site very similar to Google Trends but it gives more insight into Growing Trends go to… http://www.google.com/insights

Market research online is fast and very revealing when you know where to go.

Google.com/trends is a free site that allows you to research where the market is heading for any search term typed in to Google from 2004 and onwards.

Tips for Using Google Trends To Improve your Business…

Comparative Charts

If you type in a comma between two or three different search terms it will show a comparison chart of the search terms.

Formatting when you cut and paste from websites

Copying text from a website and pasting it into Notepad (or Wordpad) before you paste it into Microsoft Word will stop ugly formatting issues when you want to use web content in Microsoft Word.

What pasting in Notepad and Wordpad does is it will remove all formatting (formatting means things like, italics, bold, tabs, frames etc) from any text you paste in. Then you copy the text again, but from Notepad, and paste it into Word, and it’ll be plain text.

You can find Notepad software in your ‘Start’ menu if you have a Microsoft operating system. Just go to ‘Start’ then ‘Accessories’ and you’ll find ‘Notepad’.

I don’t know what Mac’s have that is like Notepad but if you know feel free to comment on this post and help other Mac users clean up their copied text…

Deciphering What Is Spam

I just read a good article about how to decide if an email is spam or legitimate.

Of course you may already be aware of the things mentioned in the article, but I think the author makes a good point saying -

“These types of emails would not be so common if they weren’t working. If we all spent a little more time looking before we leaped, we would not only stay safer, we would also reduce the amount of spam that’s sent.”

Not everyone knows these tips so be sure to share this information with your friends, family and work colleagues to help reduce spam…

Read the Article Here

Small Business Boost – Page One Search Results

I want to show you an example of what I would do if I was you and I had a small trade business.

First, I’d do a Google Search on the most competitive phrase

My example is the search phrase “Plumber Parramatta”

(I suggest, while you read this post, that you follow along with me by opening a new page and search Google yourself)

Competing Pages: 4240 – This is good news, this phrase will be easy to rank a new page on page one (See post ‘How To Make it Easy for Search Engines To Find You’)

First I would add your business to Local Search which is the map you can see in the Google search results (See my post ‘Google Maps Local Business Listing‘)

Then I look at the rest of the listings that are showing up naturally, they are

1. www.hotfrog.com.au/Products/Plumbers/NSW/Parramatta

I would add your business to the Hot Frog website. Hot Frog is a business services directory that is free to add your business listing to – you need to be in this no question.

2. www.emergencyplumbing-parramatta.websyte.com.au

Not much we can do here, but it is good to see who your competitors are, learn what they are doing, and do it better

3. www.communityguide.com.au/community.cfm?/blacktown/site/tradeshandyman/plumbinggasfitters/emergencyplumbing-parramatta/

I would add your business to the Community Guide website, Community Guide is also a business services directory, you need to be in this too because it ranks on page one and they guarantee that claim! It would be a paid advertistment.

4. http://www.calltheplumber.net.au/sydney-plumbing/plumber-parramatta.php

Another one of your competitors

5. http://jobs.parramattasun.com.au/overview/6427256/plumber

Although this is a Job Ad, the Parramatta Sun is showing that it ranks highly in the search engines. You would need to pay to get a listing in this paper, however, with it’s good standing on the search engine, it would be worth the investment.

6 & 7. http://www.omegaplumbing.com.au/web/page/Plumber_Parramatta

Another Competitor

8. www.drdrip.com.au/plumbing-sydney/parramatta.php

Another competitor

9. http://www.homeimprovementpages.com.au/trade_professionals/nsw/parramatta/Plumbers

Home Improvement Pages business services directory, it is a paid advertisement, however, due to their good standing in Google search it would be worth the investment.

10. http://www.enterprisesearch.com.au/australian-business/compID/Eagle%20and%20Stork%20Plumbing%20Pty%20Ltd/

This link was actually broken. If you were to list your business quickly on Enterprise Search you would likely make it as the first choice on page one.

Enterprise Search has both Paid and Free listing choices.

…

So overall, you can see a way to get more exposure add your business to Online Business Directories that rank on page one of Google.

We can do this for you – for more information look at our Starter Package

©Copyright JT&L Global Sydney Australia This may not be copied, whole or in part

Google Maps Local Business Listing

Listing your business on Google Maps

Not only will you be seen on a map, you also get behind the scenes information about who is looking for your business’ products or services.

To get started go to http://www.google.com/lbc or see our Starter Pack and we’ll do this (and more) for you.