SEO

Why Long Tail Keywords Will Work For Your Website

Article Provided by Pierre Zarokian of Submit Express
Ever wondered why the simple keywords that you use to optimize content for your website have never brought about the results that you have hoped for. The truth is that many people look for these general keywords and several of your competitors would have used these keywords as well.

So what do you do if you want more traffic to your site?

The answer lies in the term “long tail keywords”.  These are specific phrases that people look for.  If you offer a product that is close to the phrase keyword, then you can be sure that the people who visit your site will certainly be interested in what you offer.

But how do you find these specific keywords?

First, put yourself in the user’s shoes. Let us say that you are looking for a product or service.  The first thing that you will do is conduct a Google search by typing in a string of four or five words that are related to a specific product or service.

Since people do this very often with Google, you can be sure that you will be able to find the keywords that are most related to your product by using SEO paid software that will help you find the most common searches.

Another great way to find keywords related to your product is to ask people what they would search for in Google if they wanted to know something about your product.  In doing a bit of research on the concept of SEO, you will definitely find better results the next time around in using these long tail keywords.

We recommend using this free keyword research tool by Submit Express, which will provide you some good keyword suggestions as well keyword traffic data.

SEO

Why SEO Careers are Recession-Proof

The recession has changed one’s understanding of the term ‘job security’ especially in a time when every dollar counts for a lot. Of course, the most recent years have given one plenty of evidence to suggest that jobs across several industries have been anything but secure, forgetting the fact that one can even think about a pay raise during these times.

However, if one seeks to pursue an SEO career, it seems as if this is one of those careers which seems to be immune to fall and rise of fortunes of industries and large firms. And here are some reasons why:

Reason #1: An Established Market

The big difference between the last time when the IT industry took a serious hit and the recent recession is the fact that Search Engine Optimization is an established market, and not a new one. So, there’s chance of one having to scramble for jobs as this market continues to expand.

Reason #2: Great Return-on-Investment

One of the best reasons as to why SEO is recession-proof is that for whatever amount a company invests into their SEO strategy (as opposed to other methods of promotion), the return on investment is almost always the best.

Reason #3: Cheapest way to promote your product

During a recession which involves pay and budget cuts, SEO still remains one of the most cost-effective ways to promote one’s product/s or service/s as opposed to traditional promotion methods. So what do you think companies will resort to when there is a recession?

SEO

How to Use SEO to Promote Your Business

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is now becoming the number one way for online businesses to be found in search engines such as Google. Someone trying to start a new website to be used for business purposes will need to be educated on how SEO works. This technique helps for new companies to be found by potential customers searching a certain keyword or phrase. To figure out which type of keyword is best and may be found easiest is by determining what the company offers. For example: A real estate company would use the word real estate as their keyword. Choosing a phrase is just as easy. If the company is located in Florida and is selling real estate then the key phrase would be “Florida Real Estate”. 

Using these SEO techniques will give any company an upper hand over their competition that did not use this marketing skill. If a business chooses not to use SEO then they will not be showing up on search engines, which can punish the company. The company that does not use this approach to marketing will not receive targeted traffic. This can cause a new online start up to crash and burn because they are not getting the amount of traffic that will make their business sustainable. If an owner of a business educated themselves in search engine optimization they will ultimately benefit from the knowledge. But if a company owner does not have the extra time to learn about this technique, then they can hire a SEO writer for a reasonable price.

SEO

Google undertaking major algorithm enhancements

Google is in the midst of a major change in their search algorithm, all in the name of better user experience. A recent incident involving an online store customer and owner sparked Google’s move to extend a harsher penalty on unscrupulous online retailers. The victim of said incident, Clarabelle Rodriguez, fell prey to a site name DecorMyEyes.com. Rodriguez was maligned by the site’s owner, Vitaly Borker, after a heated argument over a credit card transaction. The victim reportedly received much to her dismay a counterfeit product from the said online seller.

Google made the move after Borker commented on enjoying all the negative publicity. The website owner says that despite all consumer advocacies that were targeting his website, it nevertheless ‘returned’ increased search ranking on Google. Search engine gurus, meanwhile, say that Borker did not actually reap any benefit out of all the bad light. Users were posting “no-follow” attributes to backlinks and thus did not equate to driven traffic. Still, Google wanted to give users a sense of good online ethics to their name, and thus decided to tweak their massive algorithm in favor of Rodriguez and other similar victims of e-retail fraud.

The solution involves a way to detect retailer names in Times articles and thereby accordingly adjust for rankings. The whole enhancement proved to serve its purpose by improvements in user experience across their loyal users. Amidst all backlash of innocent e-retailers bearing the brunt of the new algorithmic solution, Google remains steadfast in keeping their ingredients and recipes secret from the prying minds of black hat optimization specialists.

SEO

Black hat optimization is self-defeating

If content is the bread of Internet marketing, then search engine optimization is the butter that draws traffic to the content. There are ethics to be considered in the practice of SEO, and most of that covers SEO strategies that fall under either white hat or black hat optimization. Optimization techniques that are considered unethical are put under the black hat category, along with all the demerits placed upon them by search engines such as Google. Black hat optimization should be avoided to prevent search engines from imposing penalties on perpetuators.

The techniques that qualify under black hat optimization are typically, but not limited to, violating search engine rules and regulations, causing poor user experience to visitors either intentionally or not, and grabbing the attention of search engine users and spiders through visual or non-visual forms. These techniques were once considered to be white hat, until people started using them unethically to the point of being ostracized. It has to be noted that while black hat optimization techniques are in fact effective in achieving higher ranking, it does so only at a limited time.

One of the most common forms of black hat optimization is spamming. People resort to posting their comments in many different websites without due approval of the website owners, or duplicating their content and posting it several times over in their own website. Not only is this unattractive to search engines, but it also creates poor user experience for visitors who are looking for meaningful content.

SEO

How Google Scribe affects Search Engine Optimization

With Google being considered the most important search engine for a long time now, understanding the art and science behind search engine optimization has become imperative if you want your website to be at the top of the list whenever someone searches for a keyword that is related to your site.

But not even one SEO expert can consider themselves truly so in the field of Search Engine Optimization. And even as people continue to decipher the most important aspects of SEO, each of the tools such as Personalized Search that Google has released in Experiment Labs has been giving us a different take on the algorithm that goes into understanding how the Google search engine works.

One of the latest tools that Google has released recently in the Experiment Labs is the Google Scribe, which takes a page out of the much-raved about Scribe SEO software that works across several platforms. But not necessarily in the same way!

Google Scribe actually is a text suggestion tool that uses words from your previous phrases to guess what you want to type next, and these according to Google, are correct or most popular phrases to be used.

And of course, in being able to use the most popular phrases if it is suitable, one should be able to increase their keyword placement in an article apart from giving you possible suggestions for words that you might be stuck with, especially if you are a writer.

And while the focus of this software switches from keyword density to how search engines view keywords from the aspects of semantics, relevancy and context, there’s no doubt that the use of Google Scribe can turn out to be an important tool in the business of Search Engine Optimization.

SEO

Tips to Succeed in Article Marketing

Article marketing can be an effective tool for you to improve your website and generate more traffic. Article marketing is an investment because you will be spending a lot of money and time to write these articles.

There are a lot of people who are using this type of strategy to make it big in the Internet industry, and so far most of them have succeeded. If you are one of the aspiring businessmen who want to make their website a success, follow these tips:

Create a Resource Box

Writing articles is like sharing a piece of your mind to other people. On the other hand, you should make sure that you marketing message reach the readers and visitors of your site in return for the effort you have exerted in giving them free information. You can do this by investing time on resource boxes.

Outline Your Articles

When introducing a new product, you should be able to outline your articles ahead of time and pick noticeable titles so that they are all set. You can have these articles outsourced or you can compose them yourself.

Take Advantage of Your Articles

You should strategically post your articles to sections or pages of your site which has not been updated for a while. This will make the site more searchable and has a great potential to attract traffic.

Optimize Your Articles

Make use of appropriate keywords so that your articles can be easily searched by search engines and readers. This way, you will invite more traffic to your website.

SEO

Some SEO Myths

No one can tell you the exact formulate to make SEO work perfectly. It is a constantly evolving subject and as a result it has spawned quite a few myths. Here are some of them.

1. Keyword density – It was true that at one point keyword density mattered a lot. Keyword density basically meant that you had to have a certain ratio of key words to the amount of words on the webpage. But now none of the big search engines place much weight on this factor so you are free to write in any style that you wish.

2. Submit it everywhere – People used to believe that their URL had to be submitted to every single search engine there was. In fact there were and there still are some services that offer to do this for you. In reality, there are only three search engine you need to care about – Google, Yahoo and Bing. These three have the most market share and are the most sought after.

3. Page rank is god – It is not. While page rank plays an important role, it is not the be all and end all of all things SEO. There are many other factors that go into bringing your page to the top of a search result. Work on those and do not worry about getting big PR in the short term.

4. Meta tags – Although they help a little bit, they do not do the magical thing that they are supposed to, which is push you straight to the top. Use the meta tag wisely and lower your expectations.

5. SEO needs to done only once – If you believe this, you might as well quit the business. SEO is a constant operation that needs to be performed on your site. Do not do it once and sit back and wait, you will have wasted your time.

SEO

Choosing an SEO Consultant

Search Engine Optimization is essential for any online business. Implementing it on your own can be a headache. However, if you possess the financial resources finding a consultant is easy. In fact it is too easy, as everyone seems to be an SEO expert now. Here are a few tips on choosing and SEO consultant.

• First of all you should read up all you can about SEO. Get an overall understanding of how the process works. This will help you in the event that your consultant tries to hoodwink you or does a shoddy job. At the very least it will help you understand the jargon being spoken.

• Ask for recommendations from others, such as any friends that may no more than you or other businesses.

• Search on sites like Top SEO Firms and other SEO directories.

• Search for SEO related terms on Google. Only the best SEO specialists will get to the top of that search results page. Now, go to the websites of each of the top ten. Pick the ones that have a good balance between design and content. An accomplished SEO consultant is able to deliver a page that normal people can understand as opposed to one that only search engines can. Some keyword suggestions to search for: Search engine optimization services, search engine placement, search engine marketing, SEO services, SEO company, SEO firm, SEO consultant, etc.

• Take the shortlist you have come up with and look at their history. Check their online reputation in forums and by typing the company name in search engines, plus words like “fraud”, “rip off” and “scam.” Check their BBB rating. Also, check if they are member of SEMPO.

• Call them up and inquire about their packages and pricing. Ask for references and sample rankings. Find out exactly what they do in detail. Make sure they also offer link building and find out exactly how many links they will get you. It might be a plus if they also offer web design services.

With all of this information in your hand, take a smart decision based on it. Do not base you decision on one factor alone, like pricing for instance. What you should finally settle on is a consultant who has a good record in all factors. Then you will have a good experience working with that person and also ensure that your site receives the best possible SEO work.

Finally, one company that we really recommend for all your search engine marketing needs, is Submit Express. But again, do your own due diligence and compare them to other SEO companies.

SEO

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing a website so that it receives more traffic from search engines. The ultimate goal of anyone using SEO on their website is to get their site listed on the first page of any search engine.

Not having any SEO work done on you website is akin to having a physical store with no store sign or advertising. In this example it is evident that very few or no people at all will visit the store. The gist of this is that if none of the search engines can find you, then you will get zero traffic coming to your website.

SEO is important because search engine results are powered by “Spiders” that crawl the net looking for websites and the information they hold. Spiders look only at text and not at the graphics. So you are ranked purely on content and not how good your website looks. This is why people who are interested in getting their website into the top rankings don’t bother with Flash or any other type of heavy graphics. These add a nice visual element, but have no value towards any SEO.

The whole point of doing SEO is to get on the map. As you go along and refine your keywords, you will want to appear higher and higher in searches. Being ranked number one for a certain keyword is what you should work at. This highlights the fact that SEO is an ongoing process which requires constant attention. The only instance where low SEO is required is when it comes to industries where rare keywords are being used.

For more on SEO, we recommend visiting the Submit Express SEO Forum. Submit Express is also a good search engine placement company.

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