Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Effective SEO Tools



White hat SEO tools are the way to go if you are at all concerned about attaining high search engine rankings the legitimate way. Of course with the thousands upon thousand of web sites on the Internet all vying for a share of the market, the competition can be quite stiff as you can imagine. This is why many webmasters resort to SEO tools that are not quite so honest. As tempting as the prospect of resorting to these less legitimate means is however, proper SEO tools will bring far more benefits in your efforts to attain high search engine rankings in the long run.

One of the most important factors to consider when creating the content for your web site is your target audience. Social media has proven itself to be one of the most effective SEO tools for determining as well as understanding this audience. Web sites such as Digg and Stumble can help you understand what audiences are looking for, although they were not originally designed for SEO, and they actually take a dim view of web sites that abuse them for SEO purposes. Another web site that can be useful in helping you find out what your audience's questions are and how they would like them answered is Yahoo Answers. And for determining other web sites that your audiences may be interested in, SEO toolbars is another example of SEO technology that has been proven quite effective as well.

The fact is that even if you have a collection of some of the best and most unique content on your web site, you will probably not pull in as many visitors as you want if you neglect to choose the proper keywords. It is for this reason that some of the most used SEO tools serve to pinpoint effective keywords. There are literally dozens of tools whose primary function is to check for keyword effectiveness on the Internet, and many of them have different ways of working.

The important thing to remember in all of this is that SEO technology is crucial in helping you to gain a clearer understanding of your target audience, as well as finding out what are the most effective keywords for attracting these visitors to your own specific niche. Gaining high rankings for those specific keywords is of course an important consideration and thankfully, there are many tools that can help you do just that. Methods such as link building, navigation optimization, paid inclusion, meta tag optimization, and many others have all proven quite effective in achieving those goals.



Friday, October 17, 2008

White Hat SEO Technology Tools



If something exists, you can be almost sure that a website has already been created for it. Or maybe 10,000 of them. In short, there are websites competing hard to be ranked well for each popular keyword; a fact which tempts many website owners into making poor (and not very honest) SEO technology choices to get ahead . And who can blame them when low rankings means low traffic? Tempting as it may seem, however, webmasters should not give in to the desire to cheat the system with black hat SEO. Though it may seem slower at first, the truth is that following honest SEO technology methods will do a lot more for your site over time than "cheating the system" black hat tools.

Understanding your Target Audience

It is important to consider your target audience when creating the content for a site. One piece of SEO technology that will help you develop a greater understanding of your target market is social media. Though social media sites like Digg and Stumble are not intended for SEO (and sometimes deal severely with sites that abuse social media for SEO technology), these sites are a good way to develop an understanding of what your visitors are looking for. WikiHow, Answers, and other "how to" sites, for instance, are great tools for learning what questions people have about your niche. Another good SEO technology tool for understanding and meeting a visitor's needs is an SEO toolbar. An SEO toolbar helps you scope out other websites that appeal to the same target market to see what is working for them.

Keyword SEO Technology

Even if your content is geared towards and appealing to your target market, without good keywords, your audience may never find you. Some of the most important SEO technology tools are the ones used to examine and determine profitable keywords. There are a huge variety of keyword checker tools out there, and each of the following work a little differently:

WordTracker keyword tool

Meta keyword tools

Google Adwords checker

Overture search term data

Popularity checkers

Keyword comparisons

Keyword density analyzers

Getting Good SEO Rankings

So, SEO technology has helped you to understand your target market and the best keywords for your visitors and your niche. Now it is time to get ranked. SEO service companies and individual webmasters use many different types of SEO technology to improve search engine rankings for a keyword. The most important of these is probably link building. Other important SEO technology methods include intra site navigation, directory inclusion, search engine optimized meta and keywords tags, and more.



Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Search Engine Optimization Methods



If your site never gets visitors, why bother? Anybody who is successful making money with a website will tell you... if you have no traffic, you are not going to make much money with your site. And while things like advertisements and traffic services may increase your traffic, the best method for doing so is search engine optimization. Because the traffic that you receive from search engines like Google is some of the most targeted, profitable traffic there is.

The different methods of search engine optimization fall into two categories: on page and off page. And even though some off page criteria are very important for search engine optimization, on page SEO techniques are probably the most essential. Though an SEO service can really help with your search engine optimization, there are some on page improvements you can make on your own to improve your search engine rankings.

One of the most important ways to use on page search engine optimization is through researching your keywords. Many website owners build their sites without doing deep keyword research for each page and topic. And while they might get lucky with a few popular keywords, the chances of them using the most profitable keywords in their niche are pretty slim. If you take the time to research the best keywords for each page you create for your site (that is, the ones with the highest demand and lowest supply), ranking for some good keywords will be easy. Which will make your search engine optimization efforts that much more effective.

Another very important aspect of on page search engine optimization is putting quality content on your site. When you have done keyword research as part of the search engine optimization process, you use those keywords to tell you what content people are looking for. If you provide the best content on that keyword on the net, and plenty of it, you can almost get by without worrying about search engine optimization. Links and traffic will begin to build as a simple matter of course.

For every page you create for your website, there are plenty little additions that will help your site. For the purpose of search engine optimization, two of the most important "extras" you can use are the title and meta tags. Most essential is the title tag, which is found at the top of the HTML page and at the top of a visitor's browser window. Using keywords, the title tag informs the search engines of the topic of your page. Using your keyword in the title tag is essential; and it is also very important to use it in the meta tag. The meta tag provides a description of the page on your site, as well as an indication to search engines that your page is content focused. Many leave these out altogether... something which, to put it mildly, does not help your site's search engine optimization.



Sunday, October 5, 2008

What should I know about Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing



Recently, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a phrase that has come into the mainstream. As the nature of search engine promotion has expanded, the tag "search engine optimization" hasn't seemed to cover what some companies and individuals feel they do. It is evident that while the search engine optimization industry focuses on free traffic, the search engine marketing includes click costs. This differentiating factor has been the basis of many a generated misunderstanding.

One of the prevalent mistake assumptions being the belief that SEO is a more efficient tool to achieve high Return of Investment than SEM. Yet another such myth is what has been termed the 'landing page' yarn.

In Search Engine Marketing, the owner gets to decide where the visitor's land. However, in Search Engine Optimization, the search is what determines the landing page visitors see. This is that difference that is the mother of all disparity

No searcher spends more than a few seconds assessing the landing page. More often than not, a searcher lacks the patience to browse through axilliary pages and simply hits the back button. In a matter of clicks they will be on your competition's landing page.


It is therefore of vital importance to optimize the webpage landing in accordance to what a searcher may search for. This would ensure that the visitor to the site stays on as he has been assured of it being the ideal destination of his search. Every searcher ultimately wants to land on a relevant page and it is up to you to make the landing page as relevant as possible. Only a good professional Search Engine Marketing firm would be able to optimize your page accordingly. A search spider would achieve far from desired results in such a scenario.

The ultimate ambition of both SEO and SEM firms is to get searchers to convert. Money wise, a Search Engine Marketing firm requires more capital investment in the beginning than what is usually the norm at a Search Engine Optimization firm. This is because Search Engine Marketing involves management and pay per click costs as well. On the other hand, Search Engine Optimization firms charge only for the management costs. But of course, only Search Engine Marketing would optimize your landing pages in a professional manner thereby increasing your returns.

Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing are two sides of the coin. Search Engine Optimization can shower traffic upon your page for sure, thereby increasing its rankings in the long run. Nevertheless, only an investment in Search Engine Marketing makes the landing page worth the effort and worth a conversion by the visitor. A converted visitor is the entire difference in the equation between Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.



Friday, October 3, 2008

Things to Know Before you Hire a SEO Consultant



Search Engine Optimization is the procedure used by an SEO consultant to optimize or improve upon a website by improving upon its volume and traffic quality through search results for particular keywords. An SEO consultant makes sure that the client website is presented as close to the top in the search results as possible in order to attract more searchers to that website. Be it image search, local search or industry specific vertical search engines, the SEO consultant may target any of these.

It is indeed a decision of gargantuan proportions when it comes to hiring an SEO consultant for your site. Make sure that you look into the pros and cons of hiring an SEO consultant for your site. Many SEO consultants provide useful services to the website owners. Reviewing the content and structuring the website, online campaigns, regulating the keyword search and expert opinions are a few services that a competent SEO consultant can provide you with.

If it has been long since you were considering the necessity of an SEO consultant for your site, you might as well start the hunt. A great time to hire a consultant is of course when you are at the thresholds of a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. This way, your site can be designed for optimum performance by the SEO consultant. Nevertheless, even an existing site can be putty in the hands of a professional SEO consultant. Increasing the density, proximity, prominence and placing of keywords are some of the tasks performed by a consultant.

Before embarking upon your search for a consultant, it's a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. While looking at the profile of a potential SEO consultant, it is important to look into their experience in terms of previous projects. Look into the number of projects done in your area of expertise and in your territory.

It is also of vital importance to decide how your consultant is going to communicate with you. Also make sure that you check into complaints against him if any in using unfair means.
SEO consultants have the potential to extract large amounts of traffic from the search engines, and further build brands and create profitability.

Even though consultants can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a bad name by attempting to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways, which makes it all the more important for you to research the man before hiring him.