Archive for October, 2009

Im looking for a national/world average. I know more and more companies are expected to spend a ton but I would like some sources that tell how much is expected to be spent on seo. Thanks guys.

Hello Jack,

I was trying to find the article on emarketer.com. It was posted a few months back. However, the article stated that it expects Internet marketers will be spending at least $ 26 million plus on search engine optimization. Social Media Marketing & Email Marketing closely followed.

You can also check out www.seomoz.org they just posted a blog about the future of Internet marketing. They got their info from forrester research. You can go to forrester research and sign up for their newsletter and they will keep you up to date on trends. You can also go to mequoda daily, they are also an online newsletter that provides great information on Interent Marketing trends.

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,

www.ninalewis.org

Anyone who has tried to educate themselves about search engine strategies, has already discovered that there are literally millions of pages, with as many differing opinions on the subject of SEO (search engine optimization). This vast amount of information on the subject of SEO, and the strategies used most often, can be found on the internet and in magazines and books. You could spend years sifting through all of the available materials on SEO and SEO strategies, to find the strategies that have emerged as the front-runners in the online marketing arena.

To speed up the learning process, you will find 10 of the top seo strategies listed below to use as a quick guide to the search engine optimization for your website. It is recommended that you continue educating yourself further about SEO as your schedule permits. New information and strategies on SEO are added to the already “massive mix” on a regular basis.

1. Aquant yourself with KEYWORDS, and KEYWORD PHRASES. These are the words that someone searching for something on the internet uses to narrow searches, for matches closer to what they’re looking for. You can use software to help find and organize these words, or let your SEO consultant deal with this crucial, but time-consuming job.

2. “Woo” search engines and prospective visitors to your website with tantalizing titles for your website and web pages. Remember the axiom of having only one chance to make a great first impression.

3. Create website layouts and designs that pack a powerful visual-punch for visitors to enjoy. Search engines like websites with fresh and appealing designs, but even better, visitors will spread the word about the look of your website which will create a stream of curious visitors and the possibility for more sales.

4. Only use good, informative, interesting content to fill your website. If you can’t write it yourself, hire a competent content provider to create unique content for your website.

5. Add an RSS Newsfeed to your website to provide your website visitors with access to the freshest information related to their interests.

6. Find quality links to place on your website that point to other websites related to yours. Use websites with high rankings to benefit the most from placing them on your website. You can check the rank of a website using the Free Google ToolBar

7. Submit your website to a web directory. There are large directories with generalized themes or you can choose a web directory that is specific to the theme of your website. Search engines give much consideration to websites listed in web directories. Do be careful about submitting to some of the free web directories. Check them out first to ensure that they do not engage in unethical practices such as not monitoring what websites can be accepted into the directory, and having no policy against Spam.

8. Submit your website to search engines yourself or using software that makes reasonable submissions. Mass submitters can be a hindrance to the SEO of your website because they tend to zoom towards those harmful web directories.

9. Keep track of your websites positioning in search engines and make changes in the SEO of your website wherever needed.

10. Consider budgeting for an SEO expert to help you with all of the numerous aspects of SEO for your website. These experts can save you tons of time, spent learning about and performing these SEO strategies, and can also save you from spending money on SEO tools you don’t really need.

Scott White
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/the-top-10-seo-strategies-85806.html

Hi All
I have asked a similar question for seo onsite optimisation and would really like to know what offsite seo is all about - From what I gather its just link building but is it any sort.

Hope this makes sense

thanks in advance

HI
Offsite optimisation is about link building also known as backlinks. Its a very important factor to rank your website. With so many websites on the net and only 10 slots on the first page of google and other major search engines your onsite optimisation alone will not get you to the first page.

Your link building like mentioned above will need to be done for your home page and also deeper link - so for example if you sell products then you will want to backlink to the actual product page also - aka deep linking. This will help your product pages come up in the search engines and will also distribute your websites authority.

You will want to create your backlinks as anchor text and use your keywords as the anchor text.

its also about the quality of your backlinks and not just the quantity so your better off getting backlinks from websites which have a high page rank - its also a good idea to get backlinks from relevent sites.

hope this helps

Part II

2. Does their services include content creation, or just optimization of the site as-is?

Content creation refers simply the content on your site including images and graphics. Content can be optimized by being enriched with keywords and tags added to images, etc.

Any Austin Texas SEO firm can do a better job for you with optimized content on your site. Without optimized content, you’re basically throwing free money into the pocket of your internet marketing consultant.

3.Do they guarantee results?

Like I said earlier, no Austin SEO firm can’t guarantee top rankings. What results do they guarantee? Can you get your money back if they don’t live up to it?

4. Do they use a standard method of SEO or do they approach each site individually?

Cookie cutter approaches to SEO work, but a good Austin SEO firm will look at your site and determine what methods will work best for it. You’re a paying customer. You want your site to get the treatment it deserves and not put on an assembly line.

Of course, if your internet marketing consultant’s cookie cutter approaches with other sites impress you, then I can’t tell you not to do it?

5. How long until you see results?

Listen up! Results do not happen overnight unless the Texas SEO firm either owns a magic wand or starts PPC campaigns for your site. With just organic SEO, it can take months to see results.

Any legitimate internet marketing consultant will tell you this. PPC campaigns give immediate results. Everything else? It’s going to take a month or so before the Austin SEO firm’s work produces any noticeable results.

6. Will they just analyze and provide a report on your site or will they perform the SEO work as well?

Some Texas SEO firms analyze your site and provide you with a detailed description of what needs done. They don’t do it for you. If you want an internet marketing consultant, this becomes one of the most important questions you can ask.

7. Ask the Austin SEO firm to tell you, as precisely as possible, what they will do to and for your site.

If they don’t know the answer to this question after looking at your site, then move on to the next Austin, Texas SEO firm!

Now, don’t expect them to go into detail because that would tell you how to do their job (and saving you money), but you do want to know as much of their intended strategy as possible.

8. What search engines will they target?

Plenty of little, no-name search engines exist, and your site could achieve top rankings with them. But let me ask you this.

Who uses them? Get the names of the search engines the Texas SEO firm will target. Better yet, get those names in the contract!

9. PPC or paid inclusion listings with the search engines?

PPC gives you immediate results. Paid inclusion doesn’t guarantee top ranking, but it does guarantee ranking. However, the results the Austin SEO firm gets with these methods will stop when your contract ends or you stop paying them.

If this entails all the only SEO that they’re doing for you, just keep in mind that the SEO work lasts only as long as you fork out money to the Austin, Texas SEO firm. If that’s what you want from your internet marketing consultant, then go for it.

10. How many hours will they put into working on your site?

I think that’s clear enough of a question. Any internet marketing consultant or Texas SEO firm should put some initial time into kicking off the SEO campaign. After that, your site will require regular maintenance to retain its ranking.

These questions make up a few that you will want to ask all Austin SEO firms that you contact. Of course, I encourage you to come up with questions of your own and to request, then explore, a contract with any Texas SEO firm you decide to hire.

Top notch SEO provides you with a successful and profitable website. Hiring a knowledgeable, experienced Austin SEO firm spells out the difference between being an Ohio-like business and a Texas one. Everything comes bigger (and better) in Texas, you know.

Ben Jordan
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-texas-seo-firms-part-ii-124892.html

You open your internet browser and enter: SEO into the search box. In a nano-second you are provided with thousands of results for SEO. SEO tools, SEO books, SEO software programs, SEO consulting firms, and so on. Your head begins spinning with so many choices before you to make. Especially considering that the success of your business is largely dependant upon your choosing the correct SEO procedures for your website.

At first glance SEO and all of its strategies might seem to be nothing more than just common sense, and how hard could that be, but in actuality, many of the strategies involved in search engine optimization can be difficult to implement. It is for this reason that you might need help with the SEO of your website.

Choosing to work SEO on your own or with someone who isn’t an expert in that field could mean that your website may be overlooked by the search engines, leading to lackluster amounts of traffic. It is easy for those who are inexperienced with search engine optimization to make a mistake that costs their website the high ranking it needs to generate traffic crucial to high sales, or worse, get their website expelled from search engines.

Someone with comprehensive knowledge about how search engines work and what exactly a website needs to meet the requirements for listing and positioning among the search engines can ensure your website is meeting those requirements. These experts also know what to do to beef up a website with straight-forward SEO, for websites that would otherwise fall short of the requirements of the search engines.

Search Engine Optimization experts have their ears tuned into the industry pipeline and are among the first to become aware of search engine rule changes, and how those changes could affect the optimization of your web pages. They are usually among the first to hear about the success of new SEO techniques and to learn how these can best benefit you.

The knowledge you can glean from these experts can save you countless hours of searching for the answers you need about search engine optimization and from wasted dollars on materials that are not necessary.

Investing in SEO programs and software can be costly, especially if you are not sure of what you need and don’t need. seo experts know the best SEO programs that are available on the market today and that means avoiding spending money on programs you don’t need or that simply don’t work.

An SEO expert has the knowledge and expertise to evaluate your website’s content and design, spotting areas that need sprucing up and areas that need additions in order to raise the probability of being picked up by search engines.

Most webmasters are busy enough with making sure the warehouse is properly stocked with product and fulfilling orders, without the added burden of finding the time to properly monitor all of the things that are involved in the SEO of a website. The last thing you want as a webmaster is to get buried under the avalanche of reports that are produced from using various SEO strategies so that you’re unable to use that information to improve sales.

Having someone help keep you on track by organizing, and monitoring the results reported, pays a big dividend in the headaches and missed opportunities to increase sales and profit that won’t happen because you have competent help on your side.

The question you should be asking yourself at this moment isn’t why you might need SEO help, but when are you going to get the SEO help you and your business deserve? You can find reputable SEO consultants and firms to help you with optimizing your website online. Ask them to give you a complete proposal of how they can help you with the SEO of your website. Make sure they can show you success stories from other clients and go with the ones who have had the best results with search engine optimization.

SEO experts are your #1 resource for information about the newest SEO strategies, services, and software programs coming in to use in the marketing industry, so why not take advantage of that valuable tool for the profitability of your website. The promoting of your business through a website is one of the most time and money consuming activities of a successful business. SEO is critical to getting the most out of your financial and time investments.

Why not let an SEO expert worry about the details of just how to attract the most traffic to your website. Leaving you to concentrate on the very important detail of connecting with your online customers for their increased loyalty to you and your company, and increased buying of what it is you are selling.

Scott White
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/the-benefits-of-hiring-an-seo-expert-122361.html

As more and more people round the world are surfing the net everyday, the competition to attract their attention has increased by leaps and bounds in the recent years. Companies - big and small, professionals and individuals are all in the race. Innumerable web pages are being produced and being hosted everyday. All of them are keen to rank high in the SERP or search engine Result Pages. and the so the SEO experts are busy than ever before.

An experienced SEO professional knows that the way major search engines like Google, evaluate web pages has changed through these years. Search Engine are getting smarter and smarter. Fooling a search engine is becoming harder. Or should I say risky. When you try to fool search engines, you run the risk to get banned. So, what triumphs? Real good contents? Back linking? What else?

Let’s see what are the hottest SEO ‘on page’ and ‘off page’ techniques on which SEO experts have unanimously expressed their trust. This list is not necessarily on merit basis, I mean, the first factor on top of the list doesn’t mean that it is the most important SEO factor.

On-page techniques

1. The Title tag

Go to the Google search page, type any keyword and hit enter. Have you ever noticed the starting line of each result ? It’s the ‘title’ of the web site. So, it goes without saying that ‘title’ is important. You must have an appropriate ‘title’ for your web site containing the most relevant keywords.

2. Meta Description.

You will often hear or read that Meta tags are no good anymore. But the Meta Description tag still holds good. You will never find an optimized web page without it. No SEO skips this one, on the contrary takes care that the description is comprehensive, precise and to the point.

3. H1, H2, H3 tags

The headings. The ‘H1′ tag or the header is most probably the most significant body tag in terms of SEO along with the ‘Alt’ tag . It is supposed to be the main headline of a web page and should comprise of its primary keywords or key-phrases. You should have precisely described ‘H1′ tag on each of your web pages. If you don’t like the look and feel of the ‘H’ tags, use CSS to design it to your choice.

4. ‘Alt’ tags.

Unfortunately search engine spiders cant view the images on your web pages. Neither they can view those lovely Flash content or animated GIFs displayed in the pages of your web site. They can only read texts. so feed them with some descriptive texts about the images or Flash contents that you may have on your web pages as alternatives. The primary use of the ‘Alt’ tag is to describe your images or the likes of Flash banners etc. Use this to your advantage - use your keywords as ‘Alt’ tags. It really helps and is widely used by all SEO experts.

5. Internal Anchor Text links

Using ‘Anchor Texts’ to link other pages of the web site is now being considered as one of the most important factor that influences page ranks. You can judge it yourself. Choose any well optimized web site with high page rank. Go to the Google search page, type link:thesiteyouchose.com and hit enter. The search will return with several pages and you will notice that quite a few of them are from that very site itself. So, instead of ‘click here’ do consider using ‘For more information on something go to the something page’ (replace ’something’ for anything you like). I hope you got the idea.

6. Suitably named files and folders

This concept is also relatively new. It has worked like a charm for me. The idea is to name a file ‘contact-a-web-designer.html’ instead of just ‘contact.html’. Or rename your ‘download’ folder as ‘download-cheap-web-templates’. Does it make any sense? I hope it does. Try it, you will not regret.

7. Quality content.

That goes without saying. Good, quality content which is appealing to the viewers is indispensable. Nothing can influence the search engine more, make no mistake. Make sure you write the contents for your web site visitors and not the search engines. And it is very important that you add fresh contents to your web pages regularly - it tells the search engine that your web site is very much alive.

Off-page techniques

1. Link building

Good content and consistent link building - the two most important factors of search engine optimization. Gone are the days where any links were good enough to achieve good page ranks with the search engines. Now you should take utmost care on who are linking to you and from where? You must have come across the terms like “relevant web site/page” and “good neighborhood”. It means that you get more credit if you get back-linking from web sites which are based on the same theme as yours and preferably have high page ranks - the more the better. And instead of placing your url as links use your primary keywords as Anchor Text links.

Now the million dollar question ? Who is going to link to you? Why should well established web sites with high page ranks will consider linking to a new site like yours? Well to harm trying. Most of them will not, but if you have a decent site with quality content some may just agree. But don’t worry. Fortunately you have some other options to gain some back-links. Submitting to directories is certainly one of them. Try writing some good articles on your web site theme and submit them to directories round the world. Most article directories will allow you to put a couple of links inside your article provided your article is good enough to be selected. Start trying and you will soon find that it’s not that hard. submitting to various directories get your web site indexed by the search engine much faster than otherwise.

2. Approach

Yes. Your overall approach towards optimizing your web site will eventually influence your site’s ranking in more than one ways. ‘Slow but steady’ should be the right approach. You can’t achieve anything here in the SEO world overnight. patience is the key here. Don’t try to optimize your site for broad keywords like ‘web design’ or ‘Pizzas’ at the first instance- it will be sheer waste of time and energy. Rather chose what is known as ‘long tail technique’. For example go for ‘affordable web site design Santa Monica’. And when you have got some results start working on those broader keywords. And you should have the same approach towards link-building as well. Be realistic. Don’t try to get too many links too fast. search engine call it spamming and they ban spammers. Just keep every thing plain and simple.

It is not so hard to earn money from the net. But you should make your self deserving. it is not hard to attract visitors to your web site, but then again your site should worth it. And believe me, you can make your web site worthy.

Amitava Roy Chowdhury
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/search-engine-optimization-7-plus-2-killer-seo-techniques-87127.html

Publicity of any product or thing requires huge efforts on the part of the owner or the person who is involved with the business. You must understand that there are different ways for doing most of the things. The trick for you to be successful in this is through finding out that method which is just perfect for your work. Organic search engine marketing is one such marketing method on the web which has been found to be immensely successful in helping businesses earn huge profits. After all, the purpose of any business is to earn profit and if by implementing certain strategies like organic search engine marketing helps you do well in your online business, there is no chance why you should not implement this for your business.

For implementing organic search engine marketing, you need to hire the services of a professional. After all, he is the best person to tell you to do what is appropriate for your business. Optimization of a site is an important aspect of organic search engine marketing and business owners must give careful considerations to the methods which will be used for this kind of marketing. There are many optimization and marketing firms that provide organic search engine marketing services to clients to help them deal with the search engine marketing aspect of their business. There is no point in undertaking a method about which you do not have any knowledge and in the process end up doing harm rather than good to your business.

Organic search engine marketing methods are not similar to traditional marketing methods. So if you come with idea that the process of doing search engine marketing optimization is easy, you are mistaken. Make sure that the professional you hire to help you in undertaking these marketing strategies has the required professional expertise and knowledge to help you deal with your business, no matter how complex this is. Your business is not similar to the business that your friend has, so you must be careful no to imitate those business strategies that has been successful for your friend.

There are both white hat and black hat methods as well that can be used for optimization of a site under organic search engine marketing strategy. Undoubtedly, you will get instant results through the black hat methods, but in the long run this can cause severe damage to your business. The white hat methods that are needed for optimization may appear to be time consuming, but the best part about this is you will get good results out of this and also you can get actual results which will be beneficial for your business.

Organic Search Engine Marketing if done properly will bring huge benefits to an online business. You just have to make certain decisions after some careful considerations. Every decision that you take will have a bearing on your business, so you must be careful about this. Organic search engine marketing is hugely popular among online business owners and this method is used.

Steve Waganer
http://www.articlesbase.com/sem-articles/organic-search-engine-marketing-is-the-trick-to-be-successful-116243.html

Publicity of any product or thing requires huge efforts on the part of the owner or the person who is involved with the business. You must understand that there are different ways for doing most of the things. The trick for you to be successful in this is through finding out that method which is just perfect for your work. Organic search engine marketing is one such marketing method on the web which has been found to be immensely successful in helping businesses earn huge profits. After all, the purpose of any business is to earn profit and if by implementing certain strategies like organic search engine marketing helps you do well in your online business, there is no chance why you should not implement this for your business.

For implementing organic search engine marketing, you need to hire the services of a professional. After all, he is the best person to tell you to do what is appropriate for your business. Optimization of a site is an important aspect of organic search engine marketing and business owners must give careful considerations to the methods which will be used for this kind of marketing. There are many optimization and marketing firms that provide organic search engine marketing services to clients to help them deal with the search engine marketing aspect of their business. There is no point in undertaking a method about which you do not have any knowledge and in the process end up doing harm rather than good to your business.

Organic search engine marketing methods are not similar to traditional marketing methods. So if you come with idea that the process of doing search engine marketing optimization is easy, you are mistaken. Make sure that the professional you hire to help you in undertaking these marketing strategies has the required professional expertise and knowledge to help you deal with your business, no matter how complex this is. Your business is not similar to the business that your friend has, so you must be careful no to imitate those business strategies that has been successful for your friend.

There are both white hat and black hat methods as well that can be used for optimization of a site under organic search engine marketing strategy. Undoubtedly, you will get instant results through the black hat methods, but in the long run this can cause severe damage to your business. The white hat methods that are needed for optimization may appear to be time consuming, but the best part about this is you will get good results out of this and also you can get actual results which will be beneficial for your business.

Organic Search Engine Marketing if done properly will bring huge benefits to an online business. You just have to make certain decisions after some careful considerations. Every decision that you take will have a bearing on your business, so you must be careful about this. Organic search engine marketing is hugely popular among online business owners and this method is used.

Steve Waganer
http://www.articlesbase.com/sem-articles/organic-search-engine-marketing-is-the-trick-to-be-successful-116243.html