SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION(SEO)

Search Engine Optimization

Ranking Higher in Free Search Engine Results

Do you know the popular search engine websites? Search engine websites are those websites you use to find information on a specific topic. Popular search engine websites include: Google, Yahoo, MSN, AskJeeves, Excite and Alta Vista.

Your website should be built in a manner that will prompt Search Engines to find your website to be user friendly. A search engine needs to be able to do the following tasks easily through your website:

• Search through your website

• Identify your keywords or keywords phrases on your website

• Place it in a specific category

• Navigate through your website

• Discover useful information

• Be visually pleasing to the eye

The better job you do of completing these tasks, the more search engine optimized your website will be. Your goal should be to complete all of these tasks effectively.

To understand why you need to complete these tasks you first need to know how Search Engines operate. Search engines are gigantic collections of web sites. These collections are databases which are created automatically through software robots and spiders. The purpose of the software is to hunt down websites and categorize them. The software uses a complex algorithm that ranks websites.

If you want to optimize your website then you need to focus on keywords and keyword phrases. Remember to choose a keyword that is under served online. This lessens your competition. We discussed the importance of keyword selection in Section 2.

Your website should be based around a keyword or keyword phrase. Provide articles, graphics, and advertisements relating to this keyword or phrase. It is important to keep the information up to date and varied. This will improve your website traffic.

Keyword tools of the trade
Are you curious about your competitor’s use of keywords on their website? You can check out what they are doing by using a free tool called the Keyword Density Analyzer. You submit the URL of your competitor and this tool will list the keywords, keyword frequency and much more.

Another great tool is to see where you would end up in Google’s website placement. You can use a tool called Clever Stat. This is a free tool in which you can find out information about specific keywords.

Focus on the “links”
A major factor in building a search engine optimized website is to incorporate optimized links to and from your website. Linking up with websites that have a high Page Ranks (PR) is a key to improving your own page ranking. PR is the system used by Google. Google assigns page rankings to a website on a scale of 1-10. The greater the rank of a linked website the higher your own page will be ranked.

How do you find out the page ranking as determined by Google? You can download this free Google Toolbar. It is a good idea to invest in links that have page rankings of four or greater. Anything less then a page rank of four may not yield the results you desire.

Following are quality incoming links you should consider:
• Websites with a PR of 4 or greater

• Government websites

• Well known authoritative links on your website topic

• Charitable Organizations

• Websites relevant to your website topic

If you want to get a link from a certain website, just contact the website owner directly. Charitable organizations may let you use one of their links if you donate to their charity.

Don’t forget the anchor
when you create a link on your website you have to create anchor text. The anchor text just means the title for that link; what the user sees on the webpage as the linked text. It is vital that you vary the anchor text even if it is about the same topic. For example, if the topic was vitamin supplements you may vary the anchor text to include: vitamin, health supplements, vitamins for health, and so on.

Search Engine Tips and Tricks

A great site that has a lot of useful info: Self Promotion.com

“If you want to increase your website traffic, you must know how to make your pages search engine friendly, and then submit your site to all the major search engines. Here you will learn how to do this important job properly, and be able to use tools to make it much easier.”

Online Directories
Online directories are like a phone book of website links. It is imperative that your link be submitted to the top online directories. This will benefit your page rank and increase the traffic on your website.

Online directories come in two varieties: Paid and Free

PAID online directories provide the benefit of quick addition of your website to the online directory.

Some of the quality PAID online directories includes:
• Best of the Web
• Business.com
• Uncover the Net
• Yahoo Directory
• Go Guides
• Microsoft bCentral

FREE online directories are wonderful because they are free! However, you may have to do some volunteer work in order to be listed in the online directory.

Here are some quality FREE online directories include:
• Open Directory Project (DMOZ)
• AbiLogic
• eZilion Search
• Search Sight
• Net Insert
• Linketeria
• Most Popular Sites

Find quality links through Forums
Another way to find high quality links is to participate in forums. Forums are a free way to not only find high quality links, but connect with users that are interested in your product or business. There is a bounty of forums available on the Internet with more new ones popping up each day. Find a forum that is related to your product or service by going through a search engine like Google. Here’s a trick to find forums on the topic you’re looking for.

Go to Google and search for “forum + your keyword”. Lets say you wanted to find forums about Making Money. Then you would search Google for “forum + Making Money”. Click here to see the results for that search.

You may find more than one forum related to your product or service. Sign up for as many forums as you can and become active in the forum. The beauty of forums is that when you post a message you can attach your signature and affiliate program URL. If a forum user clicks on your link and then purchases your program you will add money to your bank account!

Make sure that you read the rules regarding forum posts first! Some forums are very strict about anything that is perceived as advertising or spam. Therefore, you must submit posts that provide relevant information as well as a link to your URL. Otherwise your posts may be removed or you may be kicked out of using the forum.

Search engine spiders scan forums pages on a daily basis. Respected forums tend to have a high page rank and can provide you high quality links in return.

Check out the forum called Webmaster World. Pay special attention to the Google forum. You can learn a great deal about SEO strategies. Another great forum is Digital Point. I HIGHLY recommend that you check two out as they will have all the training you need to put all this into effect.

Start your own forum
Can’t find a forum that suits your needs? You can create a forum of your own! It is very simple and easy. You may be able to incorporate Google AdSense into your group as well.

You can start your own forum on the following websites:

• Yahoo Groups – Create discussion, mailing lists, and announcements

• Google Groups – Create discussion, mailing lists, and announcements

Starting a group is not only easy, but it is free! It is important to maintain the content in the forum on a daily basis to promote participation.

Create a Blog
Another way to find quality incoming links is to create your own FREE Blog at Blogger.com. Guess what? You can create as many free Blogs as you desire. Plus, you can place Google AdSense advertisements on Blogger.com!

If you do create a Blog, make sure that you pick robust keywords that will pack a great punch. It is important to update your Blog as frequently as possible such as on a daily basis. By refreshing content you will not only keep visitors flocking to your website, but will be favored by Google as far as your search engine placement. Google likes to see updated content, so make sure to be an active participant in your Blog.

What other content should you place on your Blog? A lucrative step would be to post reviews about different affiliate products on your Blog. You could write a review of an affiliate’s popular eBook on your Blog. Your Blog visitor could click on the link and if they purchased the book then you’ve just added money to your bank account.

You also want to trade links on your Blog with others sites so when Google spiders it you will shoot up in their search engine placement ratings.

An extra step that many Bloggers forget to do is to PING their Blog each time they post to it. Pinging a Blog sends your new Blog content to a huge chunk of online news resources. It’s as if you are advertising your Blog each time all throughout the Internet for free! This increases your presence on the Internet and also your search engine position. You can use Ping-o-Matic to ping your Blog.

You could automate the pinging process by submitting your Blog to Blog Submitter. However, this program currently costs around $150. If you have the budget to invest in it then you should definitely consider going with this program.

The Blog Submitter requires the following information:

1. Blogger.com username

2. Blogger.com password

3. Keywords

4. Signature Block that links back to your Blogger website

Here’s where the automation comes in. The Blog Submitter will then login into your Blog for you and posts your comments to around 200 different Blogs automatically! The major benefit is that numerous back links will be automatically generated. We know that back links play a major role in search engine placement so your search engine placement should improve.

**NOTE OF CAUTION: Blog Submitter may be viewed as spam by certain Blogs even though it is not spam. You will need to keep this in mind before you purchase Blog Submitter.

Cloaking – another option
The SEO methods described in this chapter are effective, but may require more time and energy than you have or want to offer. Therefore, you can use a method called “cloaking”.

NOTE OF CAUTION: Cloaking is viewed as disreputable by the majority of webmasters. It is essentially tricking the system. If you engage in this activity be aware that you might suffer negative consequences if you are caught.

What is cloaking? Cloaking refers to sending keyword laden SEO websites to search engines, but “normal” websites to your website visitors. Keyword laden SEO websites tend to be a bunch of keywords and are not easy to read by a human, however the search engines love them.

You have to be careful because webmasters may be able sniff you out and ban your website from their directory. You could minimize the chances of this happening if you avoid cloaking competitive keywords. Cloak a domain that you can easily part with if need be.

Cloaking can be tricky and there is software available to help you out. You can check out the cloaking forum on www.webmasterworld.com for recommendations.

Selling Your Own Product

It is common sense that in order to make the most money possible you need to effectively promote and sell your product. We have discussed creating your website in the previous sections along with strategies on how to make your website visible on the Internet.

The next item of business is making sure that your web content is top notch.

In this chapter we will discuss:

• The product hooks to use to attract customers

• How to keep track of customer information

• How to properly format web content

• Additional Advertising Options

• How to work with Affiliate programs

The product hooks to use to attract customers

Creating products hooks is so important that we need to mention more ways to turn a lead into a sale. We discussed the lucrative results of offering rebates. Remember that the majority of customers will never take you up on your rebate offer.

Another hook is to entice your customers with a free gift. Most people jump at the chance to obtain a free gift. It is human nature to want something for nothing. The awesome thing is that you can offer free gifts and not have to invest any money into the free gifts.

How can you do this? It’s as simple as tracking down free items at Websponsors. You can find free gift cards, books, and much more! The sponsoring companies view this as a benefit to their bottom line because the visibility of their product has increased.

When you give away free items it is imperative that you collect personal information such as a name, email address, and/or phone number. You can submit this information to the sponsoring company so they can advertise to this person in the future. Companies value this kind of information very highly. By supplying this information you may even be able to earn a commission on giving away these free bonus gifts! If you use Websponsors, you’ll get paid for every lead.

NOTE OF CAUTION: Do mention in a product disclaimer what you will do or not do with the personal information you collect. This is especially important because the free items often involve signing up for a free trial in order to receive them.

Are you daring? If you are a big risk taker then you can offer a 100% or more money back guarantee. If you do this, be specific about the conditions. Make it difficult for the customer to prove that your product didn’t work. This means that the customer had to have used your product “correctly” as defined by your standards, not theirs. This shouldn’t be a problem if your product works, which it should!

Check out the Public Domain

Yet another thing you could do to hook a customer into your website is to work with Public Domain material. Public Domain materials are books, articles, recordings and pictures whose copyrights have expired. This expiration puts them in the Public Domain. This means that you can rewrite, publish, or sell these works without seeking permission and/or paying anyone.

NOTE OF CAUTION: Double check with the U.S. Copyright Office website to make sure that the works are actually in the Public Domain.

Another major benefit of using Public Domain material is that it can improve your search engine ranking. You can find Public Domain material from the following two resources:

Project Gutenburg – This website showcases free E-books that were created by volunteers. This extensive collection is home to 17,000 free E-books. Wow! The rule is that are allowed to republish these E-books, but you may NOT resell them. This is a variation from most Public Domain works.

Free e-books – This website offers an online directory of resources regarding Public Domain materials and free content.

How to keep track of customer information

We have stressed that you should capture personal information including a website visitor’s name, email address, and/or phone number. You need this information so you can continue to advertise products to them in the future.

Personal information can be collected easily by having them sign up for a free e-newsletter on your website. Explain that the free e-newsletter will provide them daily, weekly, or monthly information relevant to your product topic.

How do you keep track of this information? A great program to use is Aweber to collect this information. You can utilize Autoresponder messages to maintain contact with this visitor. Another similar program is Get Response. Both of these programs collect your users information including emails. When you want to send them out, these companies work very well as they can thwart the spam filters. This feature is necessary because with other Autoresponder programs your email may be marked as spam even when it is not.

You can also find out the origin of your website visitors. Do your website visitors come from forums and what keywords are they using to find your website? You can analyze this information by using Web Stat or Site Tracker. You just signup and then get a little snippet of code to place in your website code to start tracking website visitor information. You can usually get a free trial to test it out.

These trackers offer the following reports:

• Traffic reports – Includes traffic reports on hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly increments. Plus the most popular pages.

• Marketing reports – Lists top referrers, search engines, and keywords used to find your website.

• Site Path reports – Shows how visitors navigate through your website.

• Visitor Profile reports

This information is extremely valuable in that you can tailor and tweak your website so that you are maximizing your profit and SEO potential.

How to properly format web content

In Section 3 we discussed the high importance of linking high quality links to and from your website. Along the same lines you need to verify that your web content is formatted properly.

There are specific rules you should follow when creating your web content which include:

• Stick with readable website addresses. Avoid tacking on any ID’s and strings to your website addresses. For example, your-vitamin-site.com/file.html is a lot easier to write and remember versus your-vitamin-site.com/vitaminXY23.php?10.

• KISS applies to your sitemap. Keep It Simple Stupid meaning that it should be a user friendly, simple sitemap that connects to every page in your website.

• Uniformity in the format of your website’s interior links is key. For example, link your pages using a specific format such as every time you create a link. Don’t create a variation such as . Sticking to one format will save you from massive headache of confusion!

• Use only one H1 tag per page

NOTE:

o H1 refers to the main heading text of a webpage.

o H2 refers to sub-categories of your webpage.

o H3 refers to sub-categories of your sub-categories.

o H4-H6 are too small so avoid using these tags.

• Your keyword or keyword phrase should be in the H1 tag.

• Avoid listing your keyword more than once in the H1 tag.

• Your H1 tag should not be a novel! It should be a short sentence.

• Separate the main keywords/phrases with a comma and place this information in the “keyword” Meta tag area of your webpage.

• Create one to two short sentences for the “description” meta tag section. These sentences should sum up the contents of the webpage while including the main keyword/phrase.

Following is an example to help you understand these rules:

• Use “Style Sheets” to create an appealing, consistent website theme.

Use the following code within the section of your webpage:

This code will applied create a theme that is 12 pt, Black, Verdana Font throughout your website.

• You will need to rename or move files on your website at one time or another. Renaming and/or moving a file can cause the user to receive an error code because the new name or location is not recognized.

Use 301 Redirects to avoid this problem. 301 redirects will automatically redirect the user to the new correct webpage.

The following code is a 301 redirect for index.html to http://www.yoursite.com/. You need to insert this code in your website’s .htaccess file.

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

RewriteBase /

RewriteCond%{HTTP_HOST}^yoursite.com\.com[NC]

RewriteRule^(.*)$http://www.yoursite.com/$1[L,R=301]

RewriteCond&{THE_REQUEST}^[A-Z]{3,9}\/index\.shtml\HTTP/

RewriteRule^index\.html$ http://www.yoursite.com/[R=301,L]

• Keep your web content up-to-date by adding or modifying information. This action will prompt Google to come search for your website for new information. Google’s spiders believe websites which are updated frequently are more important. Show Google that your website is important!

Keep the articles coming…

Don’t have enough time to write articles or create new content for your website? Have someone else write the articles for you. You can track down articles related to your website that are free. The number of free articles is in the thousands and is ready for you to use.

Free article websites include:

• www.article-emporium.com

• www.ezinearticles.com

• www.articlecity.com

• www.goarticles.com

• www.articlesource.com

• www.ideamarketers.com

• articles.simplysearch4it.com

• www.freezinesite.com

• www.articlesubmission.com

• www.valuablecontent.com

Another way to have someone else create web content for you is to seek the services of a software tool. Following are three great software tools to try. All you have to do is supply the software with keywords and it creates the content for you!

Article Bot – currently $39.99 per month

The Article System – currently $97

Traffic Equalizer – currently $147

Additional advertising options

Creating links, blogging, forums and updating web content all aid in the promotion of your website.

There are other advertising options available which include:

o Press Releases – Send out press releases on a monthly basis. Hopefully you will have time sensitive and interesting content that you need to disperse to the Internet population. If you don’t, think hard! You need to produce some kind of content so that the search engines will find your new press releases and create high quality PR incoming links for your website.

You can send out your press releases through PRWeb Press Release Newswire. This service costs approximately $40-$80. Opt for the $80 plan as your press release has better chances of being swooped up by Yahoo News and Google News.

o Save time and energy by submitting your website to the big search engines such as Google, Excite, Yahoo, and Ask Jeeves at once by using Submit-It. This is a free service!

o Use AdBrite for inexpensive targeted advertising. AdBrite allows buyers and sellers to work together regarding website advertisement space.

Advertisers can use AdBrite to seek out websites to advertise on. An enormous benefit is that you can make informed decision because the statistics including price and expected number of clicks is listed for your reference.

Publishers can use AdBrite to approve or reject advertisements purchaseD for your website and set your own advertising price levels. AdBrite makes the system as easy as possible by letting you sell advertisements to your visitors instantly through a “Your Ad Here” link as well as selling through AdBrite’s sales team.

How to work with Affiliate programs

In Chapter 1 we identified the cream of the crop affiliate programs you should join. Clickbank, Commission Junction, and LinkShare are the top three affiliates to join. Let’s look at the benefits of using Clickbank, Commission Junction, and LinkShare in more detail.

Clickbank focuses on digital items that can be downloaded. An advantage of joining Clickbank is that you can promote all 11,000 products with the same account. They will supply you with your own Affiliate ID. You have the option to select from a robust listing of products to promote. All the commissions you earn from the different products are then paid in one lump sum. This is a fairly new system which eliminates the hassle of receiving separate checks from each company. This is especially beneficial because these programs send checks and do not usually participate in direct deposit or Paypal transfer. Plus setting up business with Clickbank is easy. You just type your Clickbank ID in the hyperlink and you are ready to start earning commission! You don’t have to sit around waiting for approval to promote any of their websites or products.

Another cream of the crop Affiliate program is Commission Junction. Commission Junction has an extensive collection of Affiliate programs. The items sold on Commission Junction are physical items such as clothing and computers.

Another cream of the crop Affiliate program is LinkShare. Linkshare is the biggest pay for performance affiliate marketing network in cyberspace.

Examples of HIGH paying affiliates program

You are probably wondering what affiliate programs pay the highest commission. Website Hosting is a beneficial service to promote because you can earn $100 commissions from Host Excellence.

Another lucrative affiliate program to promote is casino and gambling. Casino-On-Net pays over one million dollars in commission monthly. They pay $200 commission per referral.

Spread the word through your Affiliates…

In order to be successful with your own website, you’ll need affiliates promoting it. Therefore, you need to spread the word about your Affiliate program. You can accomplish this through Affiliate-Announce.

You need to set your price and commission rate. It’s a good idea to start out by pricing your item slightly below the competition. You can offer a high commission rate of 75% which is the maximum commission on Clickbank. This will up your odds of brining in more Affiliates.

Think about offering Affiliate bonuses as well. Bonuses could consist of giving an additional $2 per sale in addition to the 75% commission. You can pay out the bonus monthly through Paypal. A bonus is also a great incentive for Affiliates that are doing an exceptional job promoting your website. They will tend to stay with you longer if there are bonuses opportunities involved. Bonuses may cost you money, but it is worth it because your volume will skyrocket and you will see awesome profits.

You can also find quality affiliates that will promote your website by searching Google. Search by the type of product that you “imitated”. This will yield you the websites that promote that product. You can contact these websites directly through email and offer to let them test out your website. You must be persistent and offer bonuses to attract them.

Don’t forget about your OWN banner

Create a banner for your own website. You can then place this banner on your affiliate page for your affiliates to utilize. Creating a banner won’t break your bank account if you choose an inexpensive service. I recommend just going to Google and search for “graphic design.” You’ll see lots of people that can do the job. Just look through their portfolio’s online and pick the company that you like the best.

Find out more about Affiliate marketing

Do you still have questions about how Affiliate marketing works? Following are three websites that will answer your questions, concerns, and provide you knowledge regarding Affiliate marketing:

AffiliateManager.net

AffiliateTip.com

AffiliateBoards.com