Articles from WEBLOG TUTORIAL CENTRE, MARKETING AND SEO TIPS AND

Realistic Search Engine Optimization Expectations
2007-08-07 14:40:00
by Jill WhalenWritten October 2005Those who've been in the SEO biz for a number of years know how much more competitive it is these days as compared to a few years ago. The number of webpages indexed by search engines has doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in past years. On top of that, a good portion of site owners and webmasters know just enough SEO to be dangerous. In the golden age of SEO, the vast majority of websites hadn't given a thought to the search engines, and when they did, it was only to place some keywords in their Meta tags. (Which, incidentally, didn't help then either.) Those were the days when anyone who knew even the slightest bit about SEO could easily rank highly in all the major search engines, with very little effort. Even competitive areas were doable with just a little more work than their non-competitive counterparts.These days, it's almost the exact opposite. Even keyword phrases that nobody's searching for can sometimes be difficult to obtain high rankin ...

All About Title Tags
2007-08-07 14:38:00
What Is a Title Tag?The title tag has been — and probably will always be — one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings.In fact, fixing just the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your rankings. And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page (SERP), changing them may result in more clickthroughs. Search Engines and Title TagsTitle tags are definitely one of the “big three” as far as the algorithmic weight given to them by search engines; they are equally as important as your visible text copy and the links pointing to your pages — perhaps even more so.Do Company Names Belong in the Title Tag?This is one of the most common questions asked about titles. The answer is a resounding YES! I’ve found that it’s fine to place your company name in the title, and *gasp*, even to place it at the beginning of the tag! In fact, if your company is a ...

Evolution of a Search Marketer
2007-08-07 14:36:00
by Jill WhalenToday I thought it might be fun to look at the stages people go through in their quest for SEO knowledge.As with anything you set out to learn in life, you don't get from point A to point Z without touching upon all those letters in between. This is why every day for the past 7 or 8 years I see the same search engine optimization questions asked over and over again by people in the various stages of learning. The search engines may change through the years, but people just finding out about SEO all tend to go through a similar growth process. The Submittal StageGenerally you get interested in search engine marketing after you have a Website created; you've got something looking good and open for business. You pay your designer, and suddenly it hits you...now what? How do I get people to actually find and use my site? So you turn to your designer who directs you to your server control panel, which comes with an automated search engine submit button.The Meta Tag StageThe ...

Can Meta tags such as the keyword tag bring High Rankings® to my site?
2007-08-07 14:31:00
Written by : by Jill Whalen (The Web Whiz)If you had to give up one meta tag, the meta keyword tag would be the one to give up.Now that we've covered the all-important title tag and meta description tag, it's time to move on to the very misunderstood and abused meta tag, the meta keyword tag.Everyone knows that to obtain high search engine rankings all you have to do is put the keywords that you want to rank high with into your meta tags, right? Not even close! If it were that simple, I'd certainly be out of work. How many of you reading this column have obsessed over meta tags such as the keyword tag? How many of you have tried putting every relevant keyword you could think of into this meta tag, only to have your site continue to be nearly invisible in the search engines? How many of you couldn't decide if you should put commas between the keywords? Spaces? No commas? ALL CAPS? Plurals?What Does This Meta Tag Look Like?This meta tag is usually placed beneath the title and meta de ...

SEO as a Dirty Business
2007-08-03 11:01:00
In real life, presidential election campaigns are run behind closed doors and their actors often play dirty tricks on each other; for "All's fair in love and war." The final purpose of the game is political supremacy. Power. In SEM... the top of Google's SERP.From Graywolf's "How to Be a Dirty Digger" to Greenberg's "The Saboteurs of Search" we learn that online marketing and politics play on similar grounds.That the search engines can be manipulated is no secret, but most SEOs try a positive approach and define their strategies as ethical or "white-hat."In Aaron Wall's dictionary, there is no such thing as ethical SEO because, no matter how you look at it, once you employ a technique (any) to manipulate the search engines, you "SPAM." The only question is what kind of spam is acceptable from a Google perspective?Part of the answer comes from Google's Webmaster Guidelines (quality guidelines - specific guidelines), more comes from Bruce Clay's SEO code of ethics, and if that's ...

Affordable Solutions For Internet Marketing
2007-08-01 08:15:00
Do you have a website that is getting very little or no traffic at all? Well, there are ways that you can change that even on a small marketing budget. We will review each of the strategies you can use to promote your website, and then we will try to assimilate them into a single, uniform strategy that is both highly effective and affordable.First of all, TV commercials, radio ads, and print advertising are very expensive. This is undoubtedly the best way to launch a business, but the costs are prohibitive. A full page ad in a prominent magazine or other publication can run as high as $50,000 per ad. TV commercials can run just as high; if the commercial runs during a popular television show or sporting event, the cost will be enormous.So, if you do not have enough money in the coffers for traditional advertising, you will likely have to use online marketing. This is not a bad thing. Offline advertising (i.e. radio, TV, print ads) is sometimes not effective. Marketing on the internet i ...
Internet Marketing

4 Great Reasons to use Google Analytics
2007-07-25 04:23:00
Having used a large number of web site visitor trackers over the years, I first approached Google Analytics some time ago, with the somewhat jaded attitude of someone who's 'seen it all' or at least 'seen most of it'. What could possibly make this particular utility stand out in such a large crowd of competitors?But first... What is Google Analytics?Analytics is Google's very own visitor tracking utility, allowing webmasters to keep tabs on traffic to their site, including visitor numbers, traffic sources, visitor behaviour & trends, times spent on the site and a host of other information gathered via two pieces of JavaScript embedded in the source-code.Unlike other free visitor trackers, which insist on displaying annoying and often amateurish badges or buttons when they are being used, Google Analytics simply runs quietly in the background, gathering the necessary information without any visible signs of its presence.Which brings me quite neatly to Analytics' first major plus- ...
Google

Web Design and SEO: The Eternal Debate
2007-07-20 23:01:00
Web design focuses on appearance and aesthetics. SEO focuses on text quality and quantity. Web designers don't really like to clutter their designs with text. They prefer to see the images stand out on their own. SEOs on the other hand don't like images that much. Sure, an image can be optimized for the search engines by adding relevant alt attributes and titles, but this is not enough for a site to be properly optimized. Page copy still plays the most important role in website optimization for SEO.As a business owner you are caught in the middle of this conflict. For your website to convert you need both design and optimization. There is no middle way. You cannot have a little bit of this and a little bit of that and still be competitive. You cannot have just one of the two either. Without optimization your site is invisible to the search engines, hence to your potential customers. On the other hand, without a good design your site, although not invisible, will get nothing but hits. ...
Design

The Secret to Creating Ads That Sell
2007-07-18 10:20:00
Whether you are starting a new business or looking to attract new sales there are a few things you can't afford. Losing potential clients to your competitor and wasting money on ineffective advertising.Unfortunately, these things happen more often than not. So, why do some businesses do so well while others fail? It's not due to more marketing dollars spent. Instead a strategic plan was evoked to produce an effective advertisement.There are many important elements that go into producing an effective ad. First, let me start by saying that coming up with a great ad it isn't rocket-science. There are no complicated formulas to follow in order to create an ad that grabs the readers' attention.Second, using just creativity can kill your ad. Let me explain. Creative ideas are just that, creative. Before you slap down an idea and call it "brilliant" take the few minutes and ask yourself the following questions:* Who is my targeted audience?* Does the ad clearly communicate my message?* Wh ...

Online Business Ethics
2007-07-13 02:42:00
Very simple: Be a source of integrity. Don't be phony, people will know and not come to visit your site again. Even worse, they will post a bad review somewhere on the web and others will not even come to see for themselves. If you don't know about something, don't pretend that you do.Respect your customers, or prospective customers, and offer them something of value. Give good information that will draw your customers' attention and this will help to build trust. It also gives them a reason to stay or come back again for more. Follow-up with your customers, but don't be a pest. Basically, don't spam, don't steal, and don't lie.Just as in an offline business, there are ethics and standards that should be followed. If you are starting an online business, you've probably spent some time online already and can see that there are hundreds of thousands of businesses trying to sell their products and information and services to you. Study how they do it. Spend some time visiting the ...

SEO 101: Should I Put my Business Name in the Title Tag?
2007-07-11 23:00:00
The html title tag of a web page's html header is the single most important "on page" element when it comes to search engine optimization. That being said, is the best use of this valuable real estate served by including your business name in the title? Chances are the answer is a resounding "no!"The title tag is an html tag which occurs in the header of a web page's code. The first thing I look at when I get a call from a prospective client is their title tag. More often than not, this tag is being used improperly, to the extreme detriment of the client.Recently SEOMOZ.org released its rankings of the ten most important factors in search engine rankings. The title tag came in at number 1, and this is no surprise to any SEO that has been around for awhile. Google especially pays a lot of attention to title tag content, and uses title tag information heavily to ascertain the relevant keyphrases for which to rank a site. The opinion of search engine experts is unanimous on this one - k ...

Striking Keyword Gold
2007-07-06 21:12:00
Keywords are all the buzz these days, but the migration of keywords from what they were a year or two years ago to where they are now is a different thing altogether. Authors, entrepreneurs and business owners know they need keywords in their web site, in their press releases and in their articles but they don't often know how to find these keywords or what the best keywords are to use.When your web designer says to you: "Pick your keywords for your web site" the first thing you think of are the root or "gut feel" keywords. These are almost always wrong. Why? Let's dig into this further and find out.Let's say you're looking for a doctor. Are you going to go online and search for the keyword: "Doctor" Doubtful. You'll probably go online and search for doctor + internal medicine + San Diego, meaning that you want to find a doctor in your specific area and for your focused needs. If, as the doctor, you used the keyword "doctor" you'd end up with a mishmash of traffic to your site an ...

To Web or not to Web?
2007-06-29 05:44:00
Do I need a web site? That is the question often asked by business owners.The answer will usually depend upon the type of product or service offered and what the business is trying to achieve. Some products/services are more suited to the web than others. Plus, a well designed web site can be a superb tool for communicating with customers, prospective customers, suppliers and the wider community.For most service businesses, I'd say "Yes, you do need a web site."There are many ways to be 'on the net', with ISP's, web designers and web hosting companies offering businesses many options in how this can be achieved. However there are also advertising and sponsorship opportunities that may be cost effective for businesses, either through web sites or email communication.Is the web for you?As use of the Internet matures it appears that company/branded web sites are particularly important for products and services that are high-involvement purchases. Examples are cars, finance, computer e ...

How People Buy - The 4 Steps From Problem to Purchase
2007-06-26 13:28:00
Did you know that every single time we make a purchase we do the same four things? Did you also know that the world's most successful businesses are now organizing their corporate structures around helping customers with these 4 basic steps? It is no longer enough to just understand the value of your products and services. You must understand the actions people take once they decide to find a solution to their problem to ensure you are not missing out on big opportunities to satisfy your customers, and build customer loyalty.Let's assume for the moment that someone knows they have a problem, and they've decided they want to solve it. There are 4 steps to finding a solution that people always follow:1. Search for things that could address the need or want2. Decide on a solution and set out to get it3. Take it and get it ready to use4. Use itAll problem solving can be broken down into these four basic stages. Here's a more familiar way to look at it:1. Go shopping2. Place an order3. ...

Don't Get Burned By Web Designers
2007-06-22 11:09:00
If you bring up the subject of web design with small business people, it wouldn't take long to find someone who has been burned by a web designer. Perhaps they have even come to the conclusion that a web site is not worth the expense. Let's look at how and why that happens, and outline some success principles that will help you when you need web design services. Since so many web designers get it wrong, the web design principles that actually work may surprise you.One of the problems with web design is that software programs have made it seem easy to create a web site. If you have the software, it would not take you long to build a web site. There are an abundance of inexpensive templates available to make it even easier to put together a web site. Getting a professional looking web site is not difficult at all. So you may wonder, why is that a problem?The process of creating a web site does not end with making it look professional. In fact, that could very well be one of the least i ...

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