Tuesday, April 6, 2010

4 Ways to Achieve Top SEO Ranking

Truly speaking, many web site owners at this time know the benefit of having extraordinary rankings in search engines. In fact, you get to be noticed by millions of likely visitors online which can indeed have an advantage to increased sales and make you more money. You can succeed in the industry you have chosen if you make use of SEO properly. For more details about the tactics and benefits of advertising your web site, here are several rules.

Ways Search Engines perform

SEO or search engine optimization strives to get web sites extra visibility, in relation to their significance to any particular search. They control programs known as spiders, which go to many web pages or Url to look up the content of the site, as well as search for other links to examine later on. They are called web crawlers and they scan the content of different web sites including web pages. The spiders send these scanned results back to algorithm, which will at the end be broken down further to be analyzed. Once the these spiders visit a link to a page, the links are stored. Other spiders over time will keep on to crawl the linked-to pages. Added links from other sites and pages will lead to non-stop crawls and visits, thus boosting reputation and likely sales.

Analyzing Your Data

Search engines normally analyze over 200 factors to identify the suitable pages that have to rank for definite queries. Factors include details enclosed in the web pages or on-page factors like title heading and page content. Off-site factors might also be included. These factors may possibly include words used to link back to your site, the reputation of the page linking to you and how long the link has been put on. Be informed that both the off site and on site factors do actually determine the search engine rankings.

Quality WebSite Design

When creating a web site, try to aspire for easy-to-understand site architecture and simplicity. This makes it easier for search engines and your site visitors to locate. Try as much as possible to organize your web site into sections. Good quality site architecture will organize the domain name with regards to the proper description of your chosen subject matter. With excellent site architecture you will be provided with a lot of advantages like simple expansion, since the site can be alienated into handy sections, easily to access, since the site can easily be viewed and the URL controlled by users and easy to maintain, since the web site can be broken down into paths that are easy to navigate.

Keyword Relevancy

Continuously make use of high-quality and effective keywords that is appropriate to your chosen subject matter. With your title, content and right keywords, visitors can easily find you. Add secondary terms that pertain to your chosen topic. Operate with keyword generating tools and other online training materials that will guide you in improving the web site entirely. As of today, there are so many things you should know while using keywords, like making use of plural or singular terms, order of words and head keywords. Your keywords should be visible in the critical sections of the article or content, but stay away from over loading the site with words if you do not want to lose your credibility and your site visitors.

Mikal Bhatia, is a well known expert on SEO and lives in California USA. Visit his site at Seo Ranking for more details.

Friday, March 19, 2010

The Evolution of a Search Marketer

The Submittal Stage



Generally 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 Stage



The next day you wake up and still have no visitors. So you do some research and find out that you need to add keywords to something called Meta tags. You find some automated Meta tag generator online, add its output to your site, and then crank up the automated submissions.



Then you wait, and wait, and wait some more.



Hmm...you still have no hits to the ole hit counter (except the daily one from your checking it, and the one from when you sent your old college roommate to see what a great site you have), let alone any sales. So you email your designer again with more questions.



The "It's Impossible" Stage



Now the designer starts to get all defensive and says, "Oh....you wanted high rankings in the search engines? Well sorry, that's just impossible, and out of the scope of my services."



You are nearly ready to give up at that point, but you're no quitter. You decide it can't really be impossible since somebody's gotta rank highly in the engines; so you begin your quest for more information. You look up "meta tags" and "submitting to search engines" at Google (because you figured you probably just did yours wrong), and find all kinds of articles that talk about something called "search engine optimization," aka SEO.



The Confusion Stage



Problem is, you have no idea what these articles are telling you. One of them says you need to make sure you use Meta tags, and another one says that Meta tags are dead. You read that you need high-quality links to your site, but you don't even know what that means or how you can get them. One article says you need keyword-rich content, but that means about as much to you as the linking thing. Some advice says you absolutely have to pay to be found in the engines, other stuff says it doesn't cost a thing.



The Trick-the-search-engines Stage



The more you read, the more you start to think that there must be some sort of trick to this whole SEO thing. Somehow you have to force the search engines into pulling your site up. You have learned that you need to think about keyword phrases as opposed to keywords, but you're still not clear about what to do with these phrases.



You remember reading about "keyword-rich content" and suddenly it clicks that you need to actually put your phrases on the page somewhere. But you have found so many phrases that you want to rank highly for, and can't quite figure out how you can get them all on your home page. You wonder if you should just list them somewhere. At the top? At the bottom? In a tiny font size, perhaps? Maybe you should make them blend in with the background of the site, because you really don't like the way it looks with all those phrases listed like that.



At this point, you're starting to think you're pretty smart for figuring that little trick out, and decide to tell some people you met on an SEO forum. Ouch! Apparently, you were not the first to think of this trick, and you got called all sorts of names, like "spammer"! You didn't even know there was such a thing as search engine spam, but you know that spamming anything can't be a very good thing to do!



So you start thinking that maybe tricking the search engines isn't the best way to attack things.



The Learning Stage



You decide to brave the forum again, to see if you can learn what other people do if they're not tricking the engines. By now, you've become intimately familiar with many of the terms people use, and some of the stuff they tell you is beginning to actually make some sense.



What you learn at this point is that you don't need to put all 50 phrases on the home page, just two or three! Now that seems doable. You also learn that you should use your phrases "naturally" when writing about what you do on every page of your site. Slowly but surely, things start making more sense, and each new tidbit you learn builds on the last one. You learn that the Title tag is also a good place for keyword phrases, and are embarrassed when you look at yours and see that it says, "Welcome to Our Home Page."



The Quick-fix Stage



You also learn that the search engines prefer to rank the most "popular" sites before the least popular ones, and you learn that they figure out which sites are the most popular by how many sites are linking to them. It makes perfect sense.



You really have no idea how you will get other sites to want to link to yours in order for it to be popular, but you know you're going to have to come up with some sort of a plan for this. You're a bit disheartened to think about how much time and effort it's going to take to become a popular site, so you ask your forum friends if there's a way to speed things along a bit...like maybe you can all link to each other's sites?



Ackk...they yell at you again and call you a link farmer.



The Hard-work Phase



Eventually, you reconcile with the fact that you're gonna have to work hard, just like you did when you first built your business offline. So off you go to make your site the best it can be for the search engines as well as your visitors, and a mature search engine marketer is born!

Monday, March 15, 2010

9 Keys to an Effective Logo

The right logo, with the right characteristics, will boost your visibility, credibility and memorablity – which means more business for you!

These characteristics include:

  • Consistency in use of your logo, tagline, materials. Repetition of similar elements, used in the same or similar ways, helps people to remember who you are and what you do.

The Catapult Advisors logo icon is used as a watermark across all of their materials, including their website.




  • Memorability, so that your logo stays at the forefront of your potential clients' minds. That way, they'll think of you next time they have a need.

A bold logo for The Paradigm Shifts begins to visually tell the story of what these transition coaches do.




  • Meaningfulness, so that your logo can spread the message about the distinguishing characteristics of your business.

Totally Tots designs and hand-creates baby blankets and hats, and also sells children's toys online, all of which are shown in their logo.




  • Uniqueness, which helps you stand out from the crowd. For example, if everyone in your industry uses a particular symbol (i.e., travel agencies often use globes in their logos), try to use something else – that way, your logo doesn't just look like everyone else's.

Reilly travel agency specializes in Group Travel, and their logo symbolizes bringing together many different people into a single itinerary.




  • Professionalism, in the quality of the graphics, the printing and the paper on which your materials are printed.

Stylus Group printed their materials on a thick (100#) paper, and the printing was done by a traditional press process instead of by using a less expensive digital printing option.




  • Timelessness in your logo will ensure that you don't have to redesign your logo in just a few years and that your investment and equity in your design will be lasting.

Expansion Consulting's logo design does not speak to a particular time period, and provides them with a look that will work throughout the years.




  • Contrast between the colors in your logo – and not just in terms of hue, but in terms of value as well, so that it translates well either to black and white or greyscale and colorblind people are able to see it.

The green accent color used in Jaeger Associates' logo is a vivid contrast to the coffee hues whether the logo is printed in color or black and white.




  • Unity among the different elements in the logo. The logo must fit together as a single unit, and not just appear as a jumble of elements pasted together.

The symbol and text in the Crescenda logo are sized to fit together within a bounding square, and all of the elements are appropriately sized to one another.




  • Scalability, so that your logo looks equally good on both a business card and on a sign for your business (or a billboard!), and at every size in between. Your business's name should be legible at different logo sizes – be sure that your designer chooses a font that is easily readable.

The Dropwise Essentials logo is used in many sizes in the applications in their custom marketing package—from .75 inches wide on their lip balm labels to several feet wide on their trade show booth banner.


Having a professionally designed logo can really give your business a jumpstart and helps your business get the attention – and clients – you need to succeed.