Combine Links with Quality Resources and You’re on a Winner
There are 1001 ways to drive traffic to your websites. I reckon I’ve tried most of them over the years and in the process have become blasé over the whole process of traffic promotion - but here’s one that surprises even a hardened old cynic like...
Getting Started in ECommerce - Part One
In 2004, Enquiro.com conducted a study of the search behaviors of men vs. women. They found that women spend more time in their searches and at specific sites. The study also revealed that women tend to be more deliberate in reading search results,...
Google and Your Domain Name
Most everyone agrees that with Google content is king and
natural anchor text links is second to the throne followed by the Meta
Description Tag along with several other factors. But most everyone often
overlooks one of those several other...
Improving Your Conversion Reduces the Need to Constantly Promote Your Sites
Copyright 2005 Jack Humphrey
I just got off the phone with Michael Fortin, one of the top copywriters and conversion experts on the web.
We were doing a teleseminar for our members on conversion and testing for website owners wanting more out...
PayPal Dedication Can Leave Your Business Exposed!
To many web users, PayPal is not the kind of pal they had envisioned when starting their online business. Long on track history but overwhelmingly unpopular among merchants and buyers one is left to wonder why PayPal has continued to grow.
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Five tips to improve your chances with Google et al.
"Dear David: I just created a website on baby toy safety. What should I do to make sure gazillions of people find me through the search engines?"
I can't promise you gazillions, but there are a few things you should do to make it easy for search engines to find you. I assume you have already decided to submit your site to the major search engines and directories. I assume that you will develop some sort of linking strategy (hopefully a better strategy than most websites use today). I also assume you will have picked key search terms for all the pages on your website.
Beyond that, here are my top five tips for making your website easy for those "gazillions" to find it.
A picture might be worth a thousand words, but search engines don't read pictures. Make sure your key search terms are written out in text, not part of a graphic title you hire somebody to prepare for you. That also means you should not just show pictures of toys, but also write out the names, and possibly a keyword description with the title.
Have several pages of articles related to your website's topic. Use a different keyword search term for each article. For instance, one article might use frequently the term "safe toys for babies", while another might use the term "baby safety".
What's the URL of your website? Your name won't help you there. Your key search term will. In this instance, I might pick www.baby-toy-safety.com, for example (if that is one of your top keyword phrases). Hire somebody who knows what he is doing to develop the right keyword strategy for you BEFORE you choose your domain name.
What's the title of your page? I don't know how many times I see titles such as "Article" or "Contact us". Don't
expect the search engine robots to get all excited about that term. And don't expect anybody to search for that term, either. Much better to title your page "Free article on safe toys for babies" or "Contact the *Baby Toy Expert* today". By the way, this is the single most important place to include your keyword phrases.
What about that navigation menu that appears on every single page of your website? Does it say "Contact the baby toy expert?" Or "about the baby toy expert". Or links about baby toys?" Need I say more?
If your website is about life insurance, you have little hope of hitting the front pages of any search engine. "Life insurance" is such a competitive search engine marketplace. Unless, of course, people are searching for a very specific and rare niche. Even then, I suspect you will need much more than these five tips.
In fact, there are dozens, if not hundreds of things you can do to win the search engine race. These top five search engine optimization tips are a great start, whatever your website is about.