How To Get Backlinks

If you understand that getting one-way backlinks can help your website, you would go out and get them. Not an easy task. Here are some good places to consider for obtaining those much needed inbound links:

Article Directories http://www.ezinearticles.com
Reciprocal links
Forum posting
Blog Commenting
Social bookmarking
Squidoo pages http://www.squidoo.com
Hub pages - http://hubpages.com/
yahoo answers
ibibo swaals - http://sawaal.ibibo.com/
answers.com - http://answers.yahoo.com/

Other ideas:
Hold an online competition offering a desirable prize.
Craigslist SEO Secrets
Rent/Buy Links? (not sure about this one, checking, report back later)
Write articles for powerful sites (PR5 and higher)
Be a News Breaker or the next best thing (thanks SEO blog!)
Be surprisingly and deliberately negative(SEO blog)
Get an .edu backlink
Get Backlinks from Twitter? (daily blogger)


Don't do thesse things to get backlinks:

- Article Spinning? - forget it! (anything you do to spam search engines will eventually hurt you)
- Don't do a search for "submit website" - takes far too long to find a worthy site
- 3 way links - just another way to spam google






If you have other ideas, please post them here!

Greg Cryns
Inexpensive advertising
Good and inexpensive marketing membership site

Is website speed a factor in Google ranking?

I came across a video where Matt Cutts talks about website speed as a factor in your website ranking.

Essentially, this IS something to be aware of for 2010. Remember, Google always thinks about the searcher's experience first and foremost. If a search shows a site that is slow loading, how does that make for a good experience for the searcher? Obviously not.

So, Matt Cutts says to check on your website speed and be ready for changes in algorithms in 2010. Go to http://code.google.com/speed/ for a lot of help for this issue.

Also, Firefox has a nice plugin to help you test your website for speed:
http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/

Here is the video interview with Matt Cutts:

http://videos.webpronews.com/2009/11/13/matt-cutts-interview/

Greg Cryns

Website Design and SEO Promotion

Work At Home Profiles
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SEO is just one piece of the online success puzzle

If you build a good website, one which provides your visitors with information they want to read or see in video, chances are that in time you will gain respect from the search engines and your rank will rise. You may even get some top rankings for some key phrases.

I advise my clients to obtain good basic SEO advice from experienced professionals. I also encourage my clients to use the existing resources of smart people within their company to do much of the legwork and continue the SEO work done by your professional advisor. Read more in this fine Guest Post.

Finding Balance Between SEO and Non-SEO Traffic Generation
Copyright (c) 2009 Kurt D. Lynn
KLynn Inc
http://www.klynn.ca/

So much SEO.

You might think, from all the buzz about search engine
optimization - SEO - that it offers a cure for all the world's
business ills. Somehow, SEO has been propelled from the
backwaters of Internet geekdom into the forefront of modern
business marketing. For example, if Google's own search results
are any indication, the interest in SEO yields almost 50% of the
interest in general advertising. That level of interest seems way
out of proportion to the realities of business advertising.

So Why All The Hubbub?

The excitement seems to be around the notion that SEO means
"free advertising", that it means, if you do it right, millions
of people will be clicking through to your site willy-nilly
having found you on some search engine and then will immediately
do business with you. And behind all that excitement are
thousands of overnight SEO "experts" that, variously, all claim
to ... (pick one)

* Have SEO secrets that will help you get an unfair advantage
over the next guy;

* Guarantee you a first-page listing for an incredibly low
monthly rate;

* Provide hundreds of high page rank sites that will link to
your site;

* Give you 5/10/20 quick tips to immediately improve your
rankings;

* Tell you what Google/MSN/Yahoo doesn't want you to know about
SEO;

* Tell you that whatever SEO you're doing is all wrong; or

* Some other variant of the above.

To some extent, this notion of "free advertising" is not
altogether inaccurate. SEO can result in your site being found -
free of charge - and it can result in traffic to your site that
may, in fact, result in new business. But the reality of SEO is
not quite that simple.

SEO Is Far From "FREE".

SEO takes work... often, hard work. For those that aren't
familiar with what's involved in SEO, below is a list of some of
the typical activities that (as the CREST commercials used to
say) "when applied in a conscientious program of regular
professional care" will result in higher search engine rankings.

* Researching and selecting keywords that are truly relevant to
your desired audience;

* Researching competition for desired keywords;

* Researching and analyzing competitive websites;

* Re-writing and restructuring your website to address desired
keywords, to be more accessible by search engine "crawlers", to
appropriate label meta tags, headings, and inter-page links;

* Create a program to build links to your site from other sites
(directories, exchanged links,article marketing, etc.)

* Create a program to keep content on your site regularly
refreshed and synchronized with all the above.

* Regularly (daily or weekly) monitor all the search engines and
your competitors positions

SEO Is Not Easy.

Doesn't quite sound as easy as some people suggest does it?
That's because it's not. And it's all the more complicated
when you realize that every site on that first page, and on the
second and third, is trying to do the same thing - but against
you! You boost your rank above them. They go to work and boost
their site back above yours. And so on and so on... It's a war
and the SEO "experts" are the arms dealers.

Your Goals And Those Of The Search Engine May Be Different.

If you're going to pay good money for SEO, it may also be
worthwhile to keep in mind that search engines don't necessarily
have a goal of making you the most findable site on the web. The
bottom line for them is making sure that their users finds what
they are looking for. Satisfying that requirement may mean that
you don't and should not come up first. Google is the number one
search engine for a reason: Google users get results they want.
Those may not be the results you want.

Short Term and Long Term.

In the short run, there may be some serious benefits from
investing in SEO to boost your search engine rankings. In the
long run, however, there's probably not much you can do beyond a
certain point. Frankly, if you have a finite budget, altering the
basic nature of your site and trying to boost how valuable your
site is to others (as represented by links to your site) can only
be taken so far. After a point, the perfect market
characteristics of the search engine will prevail.

Balance SEO With Other Forms Of Traffic Generation.

What this means is: yes, do make sure you do the essential SEO
necessary to optimize your rankings in search engines. But do it
in the context of an overall marketing program. Definitely use
SEO to ensure that you get a fair and accurate appraisal by
search engines. But also invest in other non-SEO lead-generation
methods to bring traffic to your site and business to your table.

Above all, measure the results of your SEO and non-SEO activities
carefully and frequently. When SEO reaches the point of
diminishing returns, cut the rate in which you invest in it and
boost your reliance on non-SEO marketing to reach your goals. In
the long run, traditional non-SEO marketing may just be the most
reliable and consistent way to boost traffic to your site.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Kurt D. Lynn has been a founder, cofounder, or senior executive
of half a dozen enterprises in both the U.S. and Canada.
Currently Kurt provides consulting and communication services
focused on the needs of emerging and growing businesses. His
consulting firm, KLynn Inc, offers an assortment of proven
services for the development of sound marketing strategies,
tactics, and project execution. His communication services,
while more diverse, are focused on optimizing sales and
marketing effectiveness: http://www.klynn.ca/


I add that social networking may be an important aspect of your online success. Article marketing could be another. Blogging yet another. There is much more you can do on your own to improve your targeted visitor count. Keep that in mind. You need targeted visitors, not plain vanilla visitors who leave as fast as the arrive to your website.

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo Website Design and SEO Promotion
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Google cache- what is it?

When you do a Google search for just about anything, you will see the word "cached" on the bottom line of the search result (SERP).





What does this mean?

Googleguide.com (not associate with Google) explains it this way: "Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches (stores) that version as a back-up. The cached version is what Google uses to judge if a page is a good match for your query."

Google saves the cached page with the date saved at the top of the browser window. So, if the result is not what you were looking for the page may have been changed since the day Google cached it. You can see what the page looked like when Google cached it.

You can also use the Way Back Machine to see what a page looked like before Google started caching the pages. I will always appreciate the Way Back Machine because more than once I've deleted important pages on my websites. They could only be recovered there.

So, if you were thinking that the Google cache was a bad place like Purgatory or the infamous Google sandbox, so rest easier.

In fact, it has been suggested that the cached date of the page may be more important than the vaunted "Page Rank" of that page. Think about it. If you see a recent date on the cache page it means that Google spent the time to visit it recently. This impliesmore trust in the site and page. [I did some checking with my own sites and I see that most were cached during the past week whether I changed those pages or any other pages in the site or not. So, I do not think this idea is valid.]

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo website design and promotion
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Tips on How to Build Backlinks for Your Website

Using techniques such as forum posting, blog commenting, directory submission, and more, you can build up your site's traffic bit by bit. This article discusses ways to build backlinks for your website - read on to learn more!

1. Press Releases: By writing short press releases and submitting them to a variety of sites, you can quickly get the word out about your site. Look for a unique or newsworthy angle to keep the reader interested.

2. SEO Blog Posts: Include your keywords as anchor text when linking internally on your site, as well as when linking out. This will increase the SEO ranking of your site.

3. Article Submission: Write unique articles and submit them to article directories to build high quality backlinks. This technique allows you to obtain a high PR backlink from the article directory's site.

4. Yahoo Answers: Answer relevant questions on Yahoo Answers and link back to your site - this provides a quick, quality backlink

5. Post on Relevant Forms: Post on a variety of forums in your niche, and link back to your site whenever appropriate. Also add your site's link in your signature file, where allowed. Avoid spamming the forum, however, as this will only give you a bad reputation.

6. Social Bookmarking: Regularly bookmark your individual sites or pages on social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon, and encourage your friends to do the same. Again, avoid spamming - you don't want to get your account deleted.

7. Blog Commenting - Leave relevant comments on blogs in your niche. Be sure that these are informational, high-quality posts. Your goal is to have people who are reading the comments click over to your blog. Don't leave comments that are not relevant or that don't contain good information.

8. Link Directory Submissions - These can be useful if the directory contains good quality links. Avoid link directories that have unrelated links or seem spammy.

9. Niche Directory Submissions - These can be great sources of traffic, as long as the links are high quality. Try to find directories that specialize in your site's niche.

By using these techniques, it's easier than you'd think to build a network of backlinks to your website. Backlinks increase your website's page rank, and will therefore increase your traffic. By spending a small amount of time each day building traffic, you're sure to see an increase in the number of visitors to your site. Doing a little bit of work each day on traffic is a great investment that will pay off over time.

Greg Cryns
Wahm Search Engine

PPC Management Tips

Top 10 PPC Management Tips Guaranteed to Lead to More Profitable Campaigns

Sometimes it seems that getting your website ranked in the organic search results can take forever. And if you're trying to rank a landing or sales page, you can just about forget it. Luckily, that's where pay per click (PPC) management & advertising comes in. It's the search engines' answer to immediate traffic so you can start generating leads or sales from your site (and of course so they can generate some income as well). Unfortunately, if you've had no PPC training, managing your own pay per click campaigns can prove a daunting task.

But honestly, it's not as complicated as it seems - pay per click management is really just setting up a campaign and making incremental adjustments to certain factors in order to get the most bang for your buck - or I suppose conversions for your buck is a more appropriate term. When it comes to setting up your campaign, the service you choose (Google's Adwords, Yahoo's Search Marketing or MSN's AdCenter) will have step by step tutorials describing exactly how to create your campaign within their program's dashboard.

Of course, there's plenty that they'll leave out, so to help, here are 10 essential tips to help you with campaign creation as well as your own PPC Management.

Setting Up Your Campaigns

• When researching your keyword list, use several different keyword generators to get as big a list as you possibly can. Then scrub the list by eliminating keywords that have nothing to do with your product or service, or keywords that won't lead to sales for you. For example, if you sell office copiers, make sure one of your keywords isn't dvd copiers.
• Break your keywords into themed groups - putting similar keywords and phrases that contain the same words together in one group. Each of these themed groups will be your "ad group" to use Google's terminology. This allows you to write more targeted ads for each group, and will improve your quality scores, which in turn helps lower costs in the long run. Many groups with only a couple keywords in them is better than fewer groups containing tons of keywords.
• As you create your ads, use the keywords in the headline, and create at least 2 ads per group that only have one difference, either in the headline or the ad text. This will allow you to split test the ads to see which one is more successful. Also make sure your ad subtly (or obviously) tells people what you want them to do on your page, such as fill out a form to win something.
• When entering a target URL for your ad, use dynamic keyword insertion in the URL - you may have to talk to a web developer for this if you have no idea what it means. This technique automatically inserts the keyword into the URL string of the landing page you're sending traffic to, which also helps increase quality scores.
• Set up conversion tracking within your PPC campaign - this will allow you to see which keywords lead to the most conversions/leads/sales as you conduct your PPC management.

Pay Per Click Management

• Begin your campaign using broad, phrase and exact match keywords (that's in Google & MSN, Yahoo calls it advanced match). Spend a little money and see which keyword match brings in the most traffic that leads to the most conversions.
• Develop a negative keyword list - especially if you use broad and phrase match. This tells your PPC advertiser NOT to show your ads when certain words are paired together with your keywords. Again, using office copier sales as an example, you would want to add dvd as a negative keyword.
• Tweak your cost per click so that your ad is shown in position 3-5 in the sponsored listings. Studies show this is more cost productive as many people click on ads in those positions.
• Show your ads evenly so that you can split test them. After getting a good sample of data (at least a few hundred impressions) choose the ad that got more clicks and conversions. Then write a new ad, changing just one variable from the most successful ad, and split test those. Continue this over time to create the most productive ad for your campaign.
• After a few weeks, or several thousand impressions, start to pause keywords that trigger your ads but never get clicks - these can negatively affect your quality score, not to mention waste your money.

Oops, did I say 10 tips? I guess I meant 11, since I've got one more to round out the list:

• Do more research! This is by no means a comprehensive list of tips you can use to tweak your PPC campaigns into success!

Pay per click management comes natural to some, and remains elusive to others. If you find yourself struggling with your own PPC management, it may be time to look into some extra PPC training. Luckily, there are always educational resources to be found across the web as well as companies that can offer PPC training or management. If you're swamped enough with other things, educating yourself on pay per click advertising may not be the best use of your time. In which case, hiring a company to manage your PPC campaigns for you might be a time and money saver in the long run. In the end, it's really about what you're most comfortable with - and of course which option will help boost your bottom line the most!

Ashley Lichty is a copywriter and PPC manager who specializes in web and landing page copy as well as PPC management She works for ProspectMX in Lancaster, PA, a full-service internet marketing company offering the following services: SEO, link building, PPC training social media optimization, internet marketing consulting, and much more.

Greg Cryns

The Mighty Mo Website Design and SEO Promotion

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SEO - the goal is to increase your targeted traffic, right?

Until recently I only thought of SEO as a way to get your website noticed by the search engines. In the business this is known as SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

I now see SEO more as a process that makes people aware of your webdite rather than a set of technical rules to put your website high up in the search engine ranks.


For example, if you post an answer on Yahoo Answers, people do click on the link you provide as the source of your knowledge. Well, why can't the source be your own website? How about article marketing? Is this part of the new SEO?

I think it is. When you submit an article to a great article sites such as EznieArticles.com and GoArticles.com a link back to your site should be provided in your author bio. (If it is not, then you are a very generous person indeed)

That link will enable people to find your website directly from the article directory. If people like what you write, then they may want to read more of your stuff.

I am told that Ask.com does not have a "no follow" policy for links posted in answers. True, the search volume of Ask.com is far less than Google, but we need to take advantage of any avenues to increase our website exposure.

Remember, the "no follow" tag used by Google does not mean people cannot cross over using the link posted anywhere else. It means that the site linked to will not get "Google juice" or higher Google Page Rank or respect from Google.

Here are some SEO techniques to get targeted traffic:

1. there are some (but not too many) good website directories to join. (if you want a list of my favorites, send me a message)
2. Participate in forum and blog discussions. This is a proven method (by me) to get a fair amount of traffic to your website.
3. Press releases: well written press releases can deliver decent traffic.
4. Link exchanges with other websites can send minimal traffic. But a good inbound link has other value, perhaps more Google juice.
5. I have good results from Yahoo Answers.
6. I have good results from Ryze.com

The point I am trying to make is that I strongly recommend to my clients that they help themselves by using these diffent SEO techniques. The new SEO requires more effort on the part of my clients or they can hire me to do some of that work.

So, you will get traffic using other techniques and that to me is the main goal of SEO, is it not?

What do you think?

Greg Cryns The Mighty Mo Website Design and SEO service
Free Freelancing Report
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SEO - blogging tips

Here are some tips for you on Blogging:

For most Blogs, daily updates are probably best, but weekly or even monthly updates might work just as well, depending on your topic and subject matter.

In either case, stick to a schedule. If you usually post daily but sometimes let weeks go by without posting any new content, you'll lose many of your readers.

Remember SEO principles apply to Blogging too plus you have the added advantage of regular robot visits if you stick to your schedule consistently.

~John Alexander Search Engine Workshops

Greg Cryns
Free Freelance Profits report

SEO - change is in the air, be ready

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SEO Changes - Are Your Sales Dropping as Your SEO Rankings "Soar high?"

Some claim that SEO is dead. John Alexander, the founder of Search Engine Workshops, disagrees and so do I. Rather than dying, Search Engine Optimization needs to rethink and rework. We should not be surprised since the Internet changes daily.

The warning goes like this: your search engine placement is still high but your sales are declining. What happened? Did your webmaster fail you?

Read more: http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/seo-changes.html

Search Engine Optimization has many more factors to consider. Recently Google introduced SearchWiki which has the potential to turn the SEO world on its head by personal search results based on your personal search habits.

Check out this illuminating article: Personalization of Search and its implications for SEO

Advanced competitive intelligence is something you need to learn now before the search world passes you by.

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo! website design and SEO promotion

About my visit to SMX 2009 conference

I was very pleased to attend SMX West in Santa Clara, CA. This was my first SEO conference. It was well worth the visit.

I met quite a few of the movers and shakers in the SEO business. The vendors at the show were a bit out of my league, though. They wanted to meet people with big scale customers, the ones with 50,000 - 3,000,000 on their subscriber lists. Alas, my customers are in the 100-1,000 range.

Even so, I soaked in their conversations and some of their presentations.

The main conference talks were good but more targeted to the beginner SEO crowd, I felt. That's ok, too. You always pick up on new ways and ideas listening to people who are in the trenches day in and day out.

It was fun to hear the Google guys talking about SearchWiki with Danny Sullivan moderating. I did not know about SearchWiki before that. I suggest you take a look for your own edification and business survival.

SearchWiki summary: using this new tool you can customize your Google search results. You can add, remove and rearrange results and comment on them. You need to be logged into your Google account to use this. Your personal changes will not affect how others see their search result (SERPs).

In my opinion, this product will affect SEO in the future, but not in the near future. To gain a foothold the product must become popular and that can be a long stretch or even failure. But SearchWiki is something you need to be aware of.

Here is the Google page on SearchWiki: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-searchwiki.html

Here is a video tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-c7vQrOV0I&feature=related

With my always handy FlipVideo I created some videos. Here you can get a feel for what a large conference like SMX and others looks and feels.

The Google booth in the vendor area:

A free presentation by a vendor:

Greg Cryns
20000 Credit Card Debt

Caution! All SEO service is equal

This is a guest post from a fellow whose philosophy appears to mirror mine about SEO. Enjoy!

Different Companies Offer Different SEO Services
by Andy Calloway

Search engine optimisation is still a pretty misunderstood service and it's small wonder - people are bombarded with information about it all the time and yet much of this information is extremely confusing and hard for the layman to understand.

SEO services are usually offered in segments with the most obvious one being 'search engine submission' which everybody seems to think is the answer to all their problems. Very often people expect that when they've submitted their site to Google it will be available within a few days - I feel a little sad for them when I explain that it will take six to eight months for them to see any real results!

You see, 'site submission', although it is one of the most common SEO services offered by consultants and 'all things to all buyers' websites is probably a massive distraction. I've seen adverts from companies offering to submit your site to thousands of search engines for very little outlay and many people believe this will get them a boat load of traffic.

Unfortunately, it won't.

Your site will not be ranked highly by Google based on you telling it you exist. It will only rank highly if you tell it that your site is relevant and interesting, and you can't do that by submitting it to all and sundry.

SEO services that are worthwhile

When you engage an SEO services company then you need to be looking for one that understands the need for quality content publication and effective off-site link building. But not just building any old links - they need to be quality links from good websites with high regard at Google and these just can't be bought in bulk.

I have seen adverts for sites offering thousands of back-links for little cash and they really only help if your product or service is in an area that has very little competition. If you have any competition that has done even a little bit of decent SEO, they will beat you. Five good quality links will beat a thousands poor quality links easily.

So, ensure your SEO company is offering a service where they will promote your company through articles, participating in forums and general off-site content building. But you should also be looking at what your site says to your customer. A good site will make it easier for the visitor to buy from you, period. If your site is easy to buy from and your visitors can understand it then it will also be easy for Google to understand.

And this leads on to something I have mentioned in many of my articles - don't ever optimise for Google. Optimise for your customers, they're the ones that buy from you and they're the ones that will eventually make your fortunes.

Andy Calloway is the director of SEO Services at Calloway Green Ltd, a web development and SEO consultancy in the West Midlands, UK. We provide a wide range of SEO services and search engine optimisation to businesses of all sizes. For free SEO information, download our e-book DIY SEO now!

What do you think about companies that provide SEO service?

Greg Cryns

The Mighty Mo Website Design and Promotion

SEO - use forums to get smart!

Forums are great places to visit if you have the time. I've moved my efforts over to blog comments but that is much like a traditional website forum. You may consider learning about many things including search engine optimization (SEO) by finding and visiting good forums.

Learn to Become a Search Engine Expert Using Forums
by Merle

As a website owner, getting your site listed and
placing well in the search engines can turn into
a full time job. Search engine optimization is
the process of altering your site so it appears
in the top listings of the major search engines.
You can hire someone to do it for you and pay out
thousands of dollars, or you can be "web savvy"
and learn how to do it yourself.

True search engine optimization does not involve
tricks or search engine spam, but techniques that
help websites become more search engine friendly
and therefore rank better.

So how does a novice learn what search engines find
important, let alone which search engines to optimize
for? The answers to these questions and much more
can be found online in discussion forums. Discussion
forums are a valuable resource and a fertile learning
ground for anyone with the motivation to learn. Hang
out a while and read the posts and you'll soon absorb
so much new information that you may become an expert
yourself.

So where do you find these forums? If you want to
learn from the best, you've got to know where the
best hang out. I'm going to save you the research
time by introducing you to the "cream of the crop."

1) HighRankings Forum:

http://HighRankings.com/forum/

This discussion board, run by the acclaimed search
engine expert Jill Whalen, is priceless. The forum
is broken down into categories ranging from
optimization tips and techniques to link building
and copywriting techniques. You'll need to choose
a user name and password and confirm your new account
by email before using the board. Jill really knows
her stuff, and I highly recommend her free newsletter
as well.

2) Best Practices S.E. Forum:

http://IhelpYouServices.com/forums/

You'll find this forum to be a very busy place. Nice
variety of topics broken down by individual search
engines so you can pick the exact engine you want
to study. You'll also find information on pay per
click search engines, link popularity and much more.
Again, you'll need to register before using the board.

3) SiteOwners/ Webmasters Forums
http://SiteOwnersForums.com

Not specifically a search engine board. Topics are
for website owners, but if you look closely you'll
see a category titled "search engine optimization,"
with a lot of activity. You'll find a range of topics
and general questions on how to achieve a better
ranking. As with the others, you'll need to register
first before posting.

4) Search Engine Marketing Forums:

http://SearchEngineForums.com

Offered by JimWorld.com, this forum is a great example
of everything an informative board should be. You'll
find a real sense of community here. Topics are broken
down by categories like "search engine optimization,"
organic and pay per click search engines, Net marketing
strategies and more. At the time of my visit, there
were over 5,000 topics posted in the optimization
category alone. JimWorld offers many excellent resources
like free website templates, tutorials, helpful tools
and again, a great ezine.

5) Cre8asite Forums:

http://www.cre8asiteforums.com

Covering topics like usability, web design and search
engine optimization. You'll need to drill down to find
the category you need. Some of the categories had well
over 4,000 posts when I visited, so there are a lot
of goodies to be found here.

Who said there's no such thing as "a free lunch?"
Search engine forums are literally a goldmine of
information, and they won't cost you a dime. By
spending some quality time in these forums, you'll
find your knowledge base increasing daily until you
become one of the "experts" yourself. When that
happens, you can start posting responses and helping
other newbies yourself.

Forums are a community of people, so if you benefit
from them it's always a good idea to give something
back by reaching out to other participants. Remember,
everything you need to improve your search engine
rankings is out there; it's your job to go and get
it. See you at the "top."

Merle has been "working" the Net for over 8 years and has a Special Gift just for you. Download my FREE E-book "50 Easy Ways to Promote Your Website". Get your copy now at http://www.WebSiteTrafficPlan.com

Photo credit: martin.canchola

Greg Cryns The Mighty Mo - Exquisite Website Design and Promotion
Get your FREE report Find out if FREELANCING is for you!

==

Why You Should Archive Your Ezines and Newsletters Online

This is an interesting guest post by Trey Pennewell. Not everyone archives their newsletters. Maybe it is time to rethink this important SEO (Search Engine Optimization) issue?

As a publisher of ezines and newsletters, you know that customers
always want more from your services. One way to provide customers
a good service while increasing your search engine rankings is to
place your ezine archives online. By placing these online, you
are giving your readers a value-added service that will set you
apart from other ezines and newsletters. Not only will this
provide value to your customers, but also by placing your
archives online, the search engine spiders are able to "see"
your unique combination of content. Ultimately, having your ezine
archives online will give you higher search rankings and
additional keyword phrase variations that everyone so desperately
wants.

There are some things to consider when making the decision to put
your newsletter archives online.

The first consideration is whether or not your ezine model is a
paid subscription or a free subscription. If your ezine is a pay
subscription, you probably do not want to place all of your
archives online where someone can access them for free. If you
were to do this there would be no need for readers to actually
pay for a subscription. However, you may want to consider placing
a couple of archived issues on a website, so that potential
customers and advertisers can see what it is your publication has
to offer them. Then, you can keep your remaining archives in a
member's only website that is only accessible to your paying
subscribers.

If you offer a free ezine or newsletter, there is little reason
not to offer all of your archives for free online. The reason
that people will want to go ahead and subscribe to your ezine or
newsletter is that they can get the issue as soon as it comes
out. You may want to consider only offering archives online that
are at least a few months old. In other words, do not offer this
month's issue in the archive for a few more months, so that
people will still want to subscribe to your publication to see it
when it is first made available.

Search engine spiders love content on websites. Not only do
spiders like the generic content, but they really like valuable
content such as articles. Quality content is one of the primary
things that search engines look for when providing rankings and
the level of importance of a website. The articles that are
included in your archive will boost your search engine ranking.
Having a higher search engine ranking means that potential
subscribers are able to find you much easier. Being easy to find
and offering a service such as free ezine with archives gives
potential subscribers many reasons to choose your ezine or
newsletter to land in their email box over your competitors.

Having your publications placed in an online archive will
automatically provide you with a good amount of keyword
optimization. For example, if you are publishing an ezine that
mainly talks about home improvement, there is a high likelihood
that many of the articles in your publication will contain the
words "home improvement". Now when a potential subscriber
searches on the Internet for "home improvement," they are much
more likely to be directed to your website and learn that you
provide a valuable subscription on this very topic. If you do not
have your archives online, chances of picking up these new
visitors and subscribers are greatly diminished.

Simply put, having your newsletter archives online is probably
the easiest way to increase your exposure in the search engines
and the easiest way to increase your ezine's subscriber base for
free. It is very inexpensive to provide your archives online, and
it can improve your subscriber's experience, letting him or her
feel good about the service that you are providing to them.

People may have a desire to read your publication, but your ezine
can easily get overlooked due to the excessive number of
publications currently arriving in the subscriber's email box. A
day will come when an individual feels overwhelmed by the number
of publications arriving in their mailbox each day or week. When
this starts to happen, they start canceling subscriptions because
it is simply too much hassle to go through and delete these
newsletters and ezines every week or every month. I have found
myself in that position, so I eliminated the ones that bored me
and only kept one or two subscriptions that really seemed to
offer me the quality content that I wanted in an easy-to-read
format. It was getting to be annoying to go through my email on a
regular basis to filter out the excess ezines and newsletters
that I did not read anyway.

So if you want to set yourself apart from your competitors and
offer this value-added service to your customers, you seriously
need to consider placing your archives online. It is likely that
you will be surprised at the change in your search engine
rankings as well. Again, if you provide a pay subscription do
consider offering a few issues in a free archive, so that you can
at least show potential subscribers and advertisers the quality
of the product you provide.

Follow my advice, and down the road, you will be able to generate
more income from your newsletter, because you will have a much
larger list of subscribers to count as your own.


Trey Pennewell is a writer, who writes about online marketing.
Learn more about our Pay For Results SEO services at:
http://www.linksandtraffic.com/seo-services/search-marketing.html
Trey also manages article approvals at the free article
directory located at: http://www.techcentralpublishing.com

Greg Cryns
Get your FREE "Should I be a freelance writer?" report

Local Search Marketing overview

Do you know what is meant by "local search marketing"?

Essentially, this term refers to using the search engines to make sure that people who are searching for local businesses will find your information as a local business.

Simple? Not exactly.

Google took a step a while back to make sure that people who were looking for a local business found just that at the top or near the top of the first search result page. Since then, Yahoo and MSN created their own local search results. There are quite a few hoops you need to jump through to get your business listed on the first page.

Let's say you searched in Google for "website design in Minneapolis" because you want your new website to be built by someone you can easily meet with and discuss the project in person. It is good to know your website person personally, right?

If you did that search today, 2.3.09, you would see what is shown on the picture above on the first page of Google search results page (SERP).

Go ahead. Type your own search for your business. Be aware that Google local results are not found for every search.

Now search for "insurance in paso robles". Do you see the Google balloons that indicate the locations of various insurance agencies? That is Google Local.

I will do a series of articles on Google Local. Stay tuned. It is important for the future success of your business.

Greg Cryns
The Complete Guide to Freelance Riches
The Mighty Mo Website Design and Promotion

SEO - embrace the changes

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
~Wikipedia

Fasten your seat belts. There are major changes coming down the search engine pipes soon. What used to be accepted as SEO good practice will need to be overhauled.

In the past when you hired a SEO expert you looked for someone who knows how to edit the content and the HTML within your website to provide a reason for search engines to respect your website. Good SEO work pushed your website toward the top of the first page in results.

Other SEO techniques include local search (by city or region), image searches and searches by industry.

The term "search engine friendly" is often used to refer to the design of a website including its navigation menus, shopping carts and content management systems.

There are many opinions in the SEO community about how to improve your search engine ranking. This is because there is not one, simple, road map to search engine optimization success. Why? Because the search engines often change their algorithms (rules for ranking websites)because they are always looking for ways to improve the results for its customers, the people searching the web.

Never think of your website as a search engine customer. Your site is search engine inventory. In the effort to make their customers happy campers, search engines can be ruthless toward websites that do not follow their rules. Your website can drop from #3 to #568 overnight.

My experience is that if you are not in the top 10 for a search term you effectively are excluded from the results. Searchers sometimes will go no further than the top three results.

So, it is not good business to take the word of someone who achieves good results for a specific SEO technique as the golden rule. There are plenty of reasons why one or two tweaks he made will not improve your ranking.

Take everything you hear about SEO with a grain of salt, especially in 2009.

There will be a reshuffling of the results based on what search engines know about your personal preferences. Yes, the search engines will know a lot more about you and what you want to see based on what you searched previously (if you have personalization turned on - this happens when you sign up for Google tools and even Gmail).

Traditional ranking methods will not go away completely, but if you depend on the past you risk being invisible in the future.

You will be served better by thinking of higher quality of traffic, talk more conversions, talk more about gaining better "visibility".

According to SEO expert John Alexander, "search ranking has always been about 'top visibility' to the correct searching audience PLUS being able to 'compel the visitor to respond' or take action. The truth is that in the future the question will be more about what percentage of your web pages are being found, by your most correct target audiences, using the right keyword phrases AND for what percentage of the time."

John Alexander believes (and so do I) that we need to learn "why" more than "how" search engines do things.

Embrace the change!

Photo by Danard Vincente

Greg Cryns
Work At Home Profiles

Get some SEO smarts to get targeted visitors

It's good to combine knowledge about SEO (search engine optimization) into your website content. Why not? It makes sense to use the knowledge you have earned by studying the topic.

SEO is a technique to learn what the search engines like to see on your blog/website and then apply what you learned to your site. For example, keyword research is an important aspect of SEO to help get your website into a high search engine position. But this is just one of many factors in SEO.

So learn some SEO. Yes, it will consume some of your time, but you will be well rewarded and pleased when your visitor counts starts to rise.

Beware of what you read about SEO, though. There are some very uninformed "experts" out there who simply don't have the experience to back up their research. Experience is a primary ingredient to success in any venture.


Here are a couple of good sources to bone up on SEO.

1. John Alexander's Search Engine Workshops . John knows how to outsource. He has the help of Robin Nobles and Martin, his webmaster, to keep things running smoothly. I am a very happy customer of John's as a paid subscriber. There is a whole lot of information on the website. Give it a look.

2. Jill Whalen's High Rankings blog is very valuable. I've been following Jill for years. She won me over when she told us to think about content more than SEO. Both are important, but I learned that when you try to influence the search engines, you tend to get burned.

When you put up a new blogpost, for example, it is valuable to think about a key phrase or two but, more important, is to concentrate on giving your reader lots of value. The search engines will reward you for your effort.

There are other good SEO sites out there. Please tell us who you love in the comments.

Photo by http://staticphotography.com

Greg Cryns
http://www.workathomeprofiles.com
Scentsy: http://www.scentsy.com/16684
http://www.wahmsearchengine.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/calgreg