If you put a blog inside/alongside your existing website (see below) you can, relatively quickly and easily:

• extend the features on the site; and
• better interact with your audience (if you’re in business, your clients, customers, suppliers, you name it).

Other benefits include:

• SEO (search engine optimization). Because blogs are dynamic and frequently updated (or they should be!), search engines love them;
• feeding users back and forth between your main site and the blog, depending on the topics and issues; and
• coverage of issues and topics outside of the ‘core’ content of your site.  If there is synergy and overlap between the two, you start to generate the perfect storm.

If you already have a website:

You can take the existing HTML code of a site add to it a platform such as WordPress.  This way you end up with an installation of a well-used and well-supported blog platform within the site which you already own and run.  The really nice result is that you can add a range of features from WordPress plugins so you, and you users, can really get the benefit from the blogging experience.

From a technical perspective, you would usually create a new directory on your server (e.g., domainname.com/blog) which is pointed to by your blog (or which, perhaps I should say, points to your blog). Or, alternatively, you could just as easily and nearly create a subdomain (e.g., blog.domainname.com).

Do be aware that these “add the blog later” projects can be a challenge because of the coding, styling and formating of the existing website. However, you are where you are and work within the parameters you have.  How much you can achieve full integration will depend on your coding and graphical (for look and feel) skills.  If the site is simple and the blog is simple it really isn’t a tough job.

If you don’t already have a website:

In this situation, your blog can actually BE your website.  Yes, WordPress and similar platforms are so flexible nowadays that the whole user interaction is via a series of blog pages which make up all of the pages of the website.  “Site” and “blog” are becoming synonymous in many situations.

The underlying functionality of your website can actually be provided by the plugins and other back-end features of WordPress.  It’s an amazing tool.

In fact, starting from scratch is a great place to be.  You don’t need to worry about the sort of effort to achieve integration of an existing site and a new blog.

Above all, blogs should be:

• regularly updated and quick to updated;
• packed with relevant content; and
• sources of real value.

But keep up you must, certainly if you want your blog or other website to prosper and do well.  Because if people can’t find it, it won’t do well.

So what is Instant Search?

It’s heralded as a revolutionary shift in the way we search online. And it should make the best search engine better.  Certainly that’s Google’s view.

Instant Search means that, instead of needing to hit ‘enter’ to see your search results, they start to appear just as you start to type.  In effect, the search results ‘stream’ to your in near real-time. As you type, the results will change.

Will it change SEO as we know it?

Quite a lot of people say, YES.

What is on the face of it a positive step, even a ‘small change’ for Google, many fear as the end of traditional SEO.

The reality is that there’s not such thing a ‘traditional search engine optimization’ – it’s always a changing game, and you as a blogger or a webmaster need to be live to that.  And, if you really get under the skin of what instant search is, whilst it impact on the ‘user interface’ – that is, the Google ‘box’ and the experience of using it – Google’s core search engine technology is really not changing.  Importantly, it’s not changing for delivering ‘relevant results’, which is what Google is built on and what we as bloggers and website owners are interested in.

Ok, that’s comforting But will the search engine experience impact on marketing?

Now this is what’s really intriguing.

Imagine typing in “where can I get a new Mac”.

Well, in the new Google, it will update the search results as you type the words.  So, instead of definitely ending up with the results of “where can I get a new Mac”, you’ll start to see results for  all sorts of thing related to “where can…”, “where can I….”, “where can I get…”.  So, the user could end up with “where can I get a new dog”, “where can I see a new car”, as as they type.  So, with the ‘need to press enter to get results’ removed from the process, a user may well get diverted to other points of interest which appear sooner in the chain of the text typed into the box.

So, this is something to consider.  It really is.

Long tail keywords will be impacted upon

In the example above, the ‘long tail’ keyword is therefore more vulnerable.

Many SEO experts and online marketers use the long-tail keywords to focus upon niche markets.  In this sense, Google Instant Search could be something of a game changer.

Increasingly, bloggers are turning to guest blogging as a form of garnering traffic. Guest blogging is when a blog post is written by an author who does not usually write for the site. Such arrangements are generally free of charge for both parties.

Why would someone want to write for free? Why would a blogger want someone else to write for their blog? The answer lies in one simple word: traffic.

The host blogger can gain traffic from the guest author’s blog. The reason is that the guest author usually informs his or her audience that they have guest posted on another site. Naturally, their fans will want to read this post and find out more about a blog that would host authors they admire.

Additionally, the guest blogger can gain traffic from the host’s audience. A guest post is almost as good, if not better, than a recommendation. The host blogger’s audience will also demonstrate a natural curiosity into the writer in which their favorite blogger has put their trust.

Another reason guest blogging is popular is getting links to your blog. Because both bloggers tend to link to each other when a guest post is published, this can help both sites when it comes to search engine rankings. Search engines like to give value to sites that have many links. They see these sites as authoritative and rank them higher in the search results.

Bloggers should choose their guest bloggers and guest blogging opportunities carefully. They should get to know other authors in their niche or community by networking, leaving comments on other blogs, and building relationships. It’s important to engage in guest blogging exchanges where there is an element of built-in trust. Think of it in terms of a morning news program. Networks won’t let just anyone fill in for an anchor who has the day off. Bloggers shouldn’t let just anyone guest blog on their site.

Additionally, if a blogger builds relationships with other bloggers by commenting on their sites, then they have an added advantage of name recognition among readers who regularly peruse the comments section of that blog. This offers a credibility for both the host and guest blogger and makes the “transition” feeling of a guest blog run more seamlessly.

Overall, the benefits of guest blogging are many and not to be ignored. The advantages of exposure to a new audience and linking can have a substantial effect on a site for years to come.

Nathania Johnson is the co-founder of Guest-Blogger.com, a site designed to facilitate introductions among bloggers in a given niche who are open to guest blogging opportunities.

Author: Nathania L Johnson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Import duty tariff

Google has changed its search engine indexing system.  And this, as you’ll see below, could have huge implications for blogger of all persuasions and shapes and sizes.

Called “Caffeine”, Google tells us that the new system provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than its last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content they’ve ever offered.

The key here, and this is crucial for bloggers, is that any type of media (blog, other site, news story) will be indexed and available much much quicker following publication than ever before.  Yes, you as a blogger can get it out there, faster.

Rather than trying to paraphrase search engine technology in one paragraph here’s a good explanation from Google of how it all works.  But it’s interesting to really consider WHY Google have built a new search indexing system.  Let’s face it, this is like Coke altering its formula.

Well, Google says:

“….Content on the web is blossoming. It’s growing not just in size and numbers but with the advent of video, images, news and real-time updates, the average webpage is richer and more complex. In addition, people’s expectations for search are higher than they used to be. Searchers want to find the latest relevant content and publishers expect to be found the instant they publish.

To keep up with the evolution of the web and to meet rising user expectations, we’ve built Caffeine. The image below illustrates how our old indexing system worked compared to Caffeine:

Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.

With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.

Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

We’ve built Caffeine with the future in mind. Not only is it fresher, it’s a robust foundation that makes it possible for us to build an even faster and comprehensive search engine that scales with the growth of information online, and delivers even more relevant search results to you. So stay tuned, and look for more improvements in the months to come.”

Wow, that’s a lot to take in. But getting under the skin of the basic reality of it all, here, this is our take:

Twitter has been hammering home the benefits of ‘nearly live’ search for some time.  People tweet – it’s right there.  And we’ve been waiting for Google to catch-up in terms of “live search”, despite them doing a deal with Twitter previously to use Twitter material in the Google search results.

Well, it looks like they’re going a long way down the road of doing just that.  And for bloggers, this is potentially huge.  Imagine being able to have your content indexed much quicker, available to your potential audience much quicker.  And if you’re a business blogger, you don’t need to have it spelled out to you how much impact this could have for you.

We’ll be keeping a really close eye on this – look out for several more posts in the near future.

Bye for now, CB

2. What good is having a web site if it is not being seen?
90% of Internet buyers are turning to search engines to find the products they want. Google alone conducts over 150 million searches a day. In fact, recent studies show that purchasers are about 12 times more likely to buy your products or services after finding your site through a search engine than all other traditional advertising methods combined (including trade shows, print ads, direct mail, radio, and even television)… at a fraction of the cost! Why? Simply put, when a consumer finds you through a search engine they are ready to buy. With traditional forms of media, you are broadcasting a message hoping to reach the right consumer at the right time.

As searchers generally only explore the first two pages in the search results, achieving high rankings on the search engines will make an enormous difference in the amount of visitor traffic your site receives.

3. Why doesn’t my web site rank very well in the search engines?
Having your web site rank high in the search engines is a science and the rules for search engine optimisation (SEO) are always changing.

Here are some reasons why you may be having poor ranking:

Incorrect usage of the TITLE tag or no TITLE tag content.
Too many occurrences of the same word in a page (spamming).
Missing H1 and H2 heading tag content.
Missing ALT tag content in your graphic links.
No meaningful content in the first 250 characters on each page.
Less than 200 words per page.
Very few pages on your website.
No links from other web sites to your web site (link popularity).

4. How does the Search Engine find websites?
There are two ways a search engine can find a website to add to its database. The first and most direct method is to accept submissions from web site designers and optimisers. Most search engines have a “submit your URL” section inviting submissions from Internet users.

The second, and least obvious method of finding websites is to send a “spider” to follow each and every link on, off, and through a website. New URLs encountered by the spider will be added to the database. In this way, some search engines will grow very rapidly.

5. How long does it take for SEO results to kick in?
The amount of time required to see results of search engine optimisation work range anywhere from 2 weeks to a few months. This is dependent on how often search engines update their index and subsequently re-rank sites. The Google Dance for example is almost a spectator sport among the SEO community.

6. What is my site ranking dependent on?
Site ranking tends to be “cumulative” and is dependent on the following factors:

The specific keyword phrases (search terms) that have been targeted
The overall competitiveness of your industry – how many players are there
Whether you are targeting a regional, national, or international market
How well ranking is monitored and the site tweaked over time for SEO improvement
The progress of your inbound linking campaign
Number of competitor sites achieving new ranking themselves.

7. Why might I need to have extra elements added to my website?
A search engine spider is an automated program that electronically probes every URL submitted to its database. As the spider is a computer program, it is designed to look for and rank very specific items on each page it probes. If those elements are present, the spider computes a higher ranking than it would if those elements were not present.

8. If these elements are so important, why didn’t they get added when my site was originally designed?
Most website designers haven’t learned the importance of search engine friendly design. In almost every case we’ve encountered, the site designer is a highly skilled and creative person whose job is to put your ideas on the web. More often than not, the designers have not received any training in search engine optimisation and don’t think about it while pursuing a cool looking design.

Search engines are also constantly changing their ranking criteria. They do this to prevent gross manipulation of their search tools. Often, website designers are not fully up to date with changes at search engines.

9. Does every page of my website really need to be optimised?
In a word – yes. Every page of a website can be a potential entry point or ‘landing page’ for visitors. You can’t predict which page or pages will be ranked the best for specific keywords. As such, each page must be individually optimised too for optimal ranking. Collectively, all pages of your web site reinforce the common “theme” of the site, which also can help boost ranking. Don’t assume that your home page is the only important page on your site.

10. Isn’t This Something We Can Do Ourselves?
Large amounts of time, attention and expertise are needed to achieve the desired results in such a constantly changing niche industry. The expense of adding personnel and necessary resources alone would quickly outweigh the cost of hiring our company, which is why outsourcing SEO is by far the most popular method. Remember, an SEO company has already established strong, ongoing relationships with all the top search engines, and has experienced professionals who are constantly researching the changes and trends in this dynamic field.

11. Can you guarantee a number #1 position in the search engines?
Nobody can guarantee a number #1 position or specific ranking for your site for a given keyword phrase in the organic search engine results. There are simply too many factors beyond anyone’s control – the search engines changing their ranking algorithms, efforts made by competitors, and new sites being added to the Web.

Obtaining a specific ranking is analogous to managing a portfolio. Your financial advisor will do their best to monitor the stock market and other indicators and to make sure your portfolio is managed to the best of their abilities. However, your advisor cannot guarantee that your portfolio will be at a specific value or even that the amount will be up at all by a given date.

12. It’s been several months and my website finally shows up in Google but it’s ranked in the hundreds. Why is that?
It’s not always easy to get better search engine rankings. In fact, search engine optimisation is part science and part art. Search engines continually change their algorithms and tweak their rules for ranking. It is possible that Google does not fully read your page due to structural issues, your web site (or at least individual web pages) could be lacking in meaningful content, no significant web sites link to you, your web site is too small to be of any value to people searching for your topic, or any other range of problems.

Search engines may be flooded with web sites on a given topic, making it more difficult to achieve higher rankings. As such, a good search engine optimiser will look for a niche to exploit. For example, consider whether your web site has greater appeal to a local, national, or international region.

13. My web site did not get accepted last time I submitted to the search engines… why?
Search Engine listings are not guaranteed to everyone who posts a web site to the Internet. Search engines are for-profit businesses and have the right to refuse to list any site for virtually any reason. We ensure all bases are covered and all necessary elements are present before submitting the finalised site to the search engines or directories.

14. Why Should I Choose to Outsource SEO?
To achieve a high ranking web site, you have to know exactly the most effective META tag design formula, best web copy writing techniques, keep track of current search engine ranking algorithms, know what format to submit the site in to every engine and how often to resubmit the site. You also need to know whether your site is technically compatible with search engine robots, what types of pages the engines will accept and which will be barriers to ranking, plus what sort of overall “relevancy score” your site will receive from each engine you submit to.

Not only that, but once you’re ranking highly, you have to monitor your progress and adjust your tags every now and then to ensure you stay up above your competitors on all engines for your major search phrases. These are all crucial steps to a high ranking, but very time consuming and not your core business!

15. How Do You Choose the Best Keywords?
The first step in our SEO campaign is to develop your Keyword Profile. Based on your initial input, we will use a combination of experience and software programs to generate a list of the most effective and well-searched keywords in your industry. We then work together to refine this list and compile the list of keywords and phrases that will be most beneficial to your product or services. You know your business and we know ours. We know how important it is to work together to generate the most effective Keyword Profile possible.

16. Will You Need to Access Our Web Server?
Yes, we will need access to your web server in order to upload and periodically update pages. We do our best to keep you informed every time we do an upload or make a change. It is vital that anyone else who may be making changes to your site stays current with the optimised pages we provide.

17. Do You Have to Make Changes to Our Site?
While many of the changes made to your site are done behind the scenes in the source code, it may be necessary to make certain minor changes to your site’s copy or layout. In most cases, these changes are minimal. We post all changes made to the front end of your site to our test server for your approval before we go live with the changes.

18. I found other services that do what you do much more cheaply: how do I choose?
Some companies take advantage of the uninitiated web site owner promising top rankings for £9.95 or something similar. Beware of such promises – if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. That £9.95 will typically buy an automated submission to 10,000 “engines” that nobody ever visits or possibly even result in a domain ban for over submitting. Once the £9.95 campaign is finished, so is your domain. There is no such thing as #1 rankings in all search engines or “it only takes 2 weeks and £9.95″.

More importantly, most of these services only include submission, not optimisation, as a part of their deal. Submitting an un-optimised site to the engines simply will not improve your rankings. If you don’t plan on optimising your site before submission then you shouldn’t bother submitting it at all.

19. What should I look for when choosing a SEO consultant?
The ideal Consultant is one that understands the dynamics of marketing, business, and technology – and employs the highest levels of integrity in their work. There are a number of unethical practices or short cuts that can be used in search engine optimisation, but the search engines themselves often times will not accept these questionable or “tricky” practices.

You should choose a company that doesn’t promote these practices to achieve short-term results for its clients. You should also expect to benefit from the research expertise, customised approached, management expertise, and on-going consultative process from a SEO firm.

20. What’s the right time for me to start a search engine marketing campaign and how long it last?
No time like the present! We usually establish 12-month campaigns. There is an enormous amount of education, research, analysis, technical programming, and testing performed in the first 3 months in particular.

21. How often will I receive search engine ranking reports?
We send out search engine ranking reports monthly to our clients.

22. How often do you resubmit my site to search engines?
If your site is search engine compatible and optimised correctly, regular resubmission to engines is generally unnecessary although we find that monthly submissions to some search engines assists in maintaining rankings. Our ranking reports and maintenance checks keep track of your site every four weeks. If your site is already ranking highly, there is no need to resubmit it. However if any engines have lowered or dropped your site altogether (as can happen from time to time), it will be resubmitted to those engines.

If an engine has dropped your rankings considerably since last report, it is time to tweak your META tags or check the optimised pages for any problems. This is included as part of your Monthly Site Ranking Management Service. Search engines will generally pick up the changes during their next edit and re-rank the site accordingly. Resubmission is usually only necessary if your site has undergone major content changes.

23. How will I know if my business increases as a result of top rankings?
There are numerous Web Analytics tools available in the market that can help you to track the effectiveness of your campaign. By the end of the first twelve months, you will get an analysis of your activity at the end of the campaign as compared to the baseline established at the beginning of the campaign.

Kath Dawson is head of the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) team at Strategy Consulting Limited. We have a wealth of experience in delivering effective SEO to a wide range of clients. Contact us today to find out how our services could improve the results of your online business.

Author: Kath Dawson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

So, some stats about Facebook, first, as at the time of writing:

• More than 400 million active users
• 50% of active users logon to Facebook in any given day
• Average user has 130 friends
• People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries
• Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have integrated with Facebook

We could end the post there  Fortunately, CB isn’t a lazy site.

Facebook’s big.  It’s impressive (whether you like it personally or not).  But how does it really lift your blog/site to a different level?

1. People LOVE to interact – they love to discuss, feedback, comment

It’s one of the building blocks of human nature and it’s what, most of all, blogs are  all about.  Using Facebook on your blog allows your readers to interact and share.

Let them ask questions.  Get opinions.  Make your blog’s Facebook page come alive (if you don’t have a Facebook for your page, really get one – it’s free, quick and easy to do).

You’ll see a real spike in traffic and you’ll get so much more from what you’re spending your time on.

2. Fan the flames

Hey? Er…  Don’t worry, it’s not that complicated.  When interaction starts, encourage it and keep it going.

All you’re doing is advertising, or driving people to, the discussion on your Facebook page.  This is done in a variety of ways, including via other social media (your Twitter account), email updates and from your other blogs.

Seriously, this is powerful.  Just try it.

3.  Engagement

We have talked about guest blogging before and we’ve had some good fun with it, as have some of you.  But that’s only one element of engaging your users in your blog. Only one way of really delivering value to your readers.  We’re keen for ClubBlogger to be shaped by you, and we recommend you guys allow your readers to do that, too.

There’s an amazing concept out there called cognitive surplus, which some of you will know about.  It examines the concept of community contribution (the sum of the parts being much greater than the whole) and the results are astounding.  We recently read Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus and can’t recommend it highly enough.

Ask readers to comment on your theme, your logo, your style of writing.  Be open and really benefit from it.  It’s a two-way street.  Facebook is a superb tool for this and it’s standing ready for you to get the most out of it.

4.  Overlap your existing social connections with your business (whether it’s your blog or other).  This can have really powerful results, but it doesn’t work for everyone – some people like to keep the two separate and distinct.

Personally, given we love what we do, we find the overlap just fine.

Speak soon, CB

For these purposes, let’s consider two basic categories of user: existing and new.

>>> Existing Users

These are the guys who visit your blog regularly, have subscribed to your RSS and are, well, fans.  They are the keystones of any successful blog and make it all worthwhile.

Keep in mind that the real building blocks of keeping your existing audience are:

1) Interest – there’s a LOT to read out there.  What sets your content apart and continues the overall theme of your blog.  If you don’t get this right, go back to square one.

2) Snappiness – without meaning to repeat myself, there’s a lot to read out there! Even the best content must have a snap to it; be easily digestible and quickly digestible.

3) Keyword (or just ‘concept’ relevance) – many, many people scan content for what they’re looking for.  It’s human nature, partly. What we’re NOT talking about here is SEO – that’s a whole different topic covered below and elsewhere on ClubBlogger.  We’re talking about the hooks of interest that appeal to human readers, not just those spiders out there indexing pages.

By getting some of this right, or all of it, time and time again you will build up and keep a loyal following of readers and really deliver value for them.

>>> New Users – the Google effect

We cover search engine optimization elsewhere. In depth.  But for these purposes we’re focusing on the title of your post.

Your writing alone, no matter how great and no matter how much your existing readers love it, just won’t cut it with the search engines.

The quick list of SEO title success:

1) Optimize your TITLE (the title tag).  When your first post, it will probably match the title of your post. But you can optimize it to appeal to the engines by using the right keywords in the right way.

2) Add keywords to the title of your post.  You know, or really should know, what keywords you’re looking to develop and use. Whilst interesting titles may work for existing readers or people who have already landed on your blog via an in-bound link, for example, the engines love keywords.  Don’t stray from it.

3) Don’t confuse changing your post title with changing your permalinks.  You neglect your permalinks at your peril. It’s a whole topic in itself, but learn more about it and we’ll post more on the topic soon.

4) Don’t optimize wording to the extent that it makes the substance of the wording ridiculous!  Technically this spans both pieces of advice, here: human readers like titles that make sense. But you know what, so do robots (because they’re ultimately based on keywords which are ultimately typed by humans!) Think about it and be sensible.

Work on these elements, and more we cover elsewhere, to build the worth of your blog, its popularity and ultimately its traffic.

Good luck.

CB

This is a follow-up to “Link-Juice And Pagerank“, posted at the start of last month.

Some ClubBloggers have gotten a little excited about geography.  And understandably so.

Why and how does the main Google site serve-up particular results for one user in the UK, one user in the US and one user in Italy?

Most of those who spend a lot of time on SEO will get this.  Others who don’t may struggle.  Those in the last bracket who have done a little work on the topic, and particularly those who’ve used AdWords, will get a little caught-up in obsessing about IP addresses.

However, whilst the IP address (which most of you know is one of the vertebrae in the backbone of the ‘net) does play a part, here (particularly with country-specific domains such as .co.uk), it is by far from being the only element. And you really do need to know more than that to properly optimize your blog/page.

Before we get to those other elements, let’s dwell a while longer on the top-level domain. In particularly, on “.com” domains.

Above, we mention the UK and Italy as geographic areas aside from the US. Well, quite a lot of people don’t realise that a “.com” domain hosted in the UK will typically be seen by Google as a UK site. Yes, you guessed it, a “.com” in Italy, an Italian site. This is despite the “.com” universal domain extension.

So, lesson number one here is that, depending on what geographical audience you wish to target, and this really is at the heart of top-level targeted traffic, then look to host locally to your audience.

Lesson number two is that the location of your inbound links (yes, we all know how much Google loves those) is also very important to the issue of geographical audience.  In a similar manner to “get hosted in the jurisdiction you wish to target”, you should get your link juice from the target geographical area.  Yes, it really does matter.

So, you say:  ”c’mon CB, my site’s international, not linked to UK, USA, Italy, Luxembourg”.  Well, fine.  A lot are (you’re not unusual:) ).  In that case, your links should be balanced, geographically.  Yes, it’s all about relevance, at least in the eyes of Google.  Is your site relevant to that Italian searcher?  Or that guy in London?

There are other lessons to learn whilst on the topic of geography, but we won’t obsess about those in detail, here.  They do, however, deserve a passing mention…..  We have seen some poor SEO operators advise on translation of a site into another language (e.g., you started in the US, you now want to target Turkey, too, and want a language-friendly Turkish site) but they forget translation of important elements like meta titles in the code, for example.  C’mon guys.  Get a grip.

We’ll come back to this overall topic again, as we’ve been asked to (and of course we always do what we’re told) but also mainly because it’s objectively really important.

Before dashing, we can’t over-estimate the importance of using Google’s Webmaster Tools properly.  Have a look and let us have your comments, thoughts, moanings if you have any.

Your favorite thing about having a blog may soon be this – they naturally attract search engine traffic. Blogs already have optimized site architecture. Most are set up with a clear navigation, where every page is set up to link back to the other main pages. They also have the inherent potential to be well-linked.

Primarily a site should be designed for the user, with search engines in mind. Google tends to talk out both sides of their mouth when they say, “Don’t do anything special for the engines”. Yet, they create a webmaster tool center where you can submit a sitemap, and get information about how the engines see your site, errors and what key phrases your site ranks for. That gives new site owners a little bit of confusion.

I like sites that are easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye and that help sell whatever it is you need to. Pages should be set up as landing pages. The great thing about your blog is that it can get so well-indexed that you have the potential to show up for any number of four word phrases that are relevant to your industry. This way you can give the visitor everything they need to make a purchase or fill out a form. At the same time you can optimize these pages for the engines and use the pages for your PPC campaigns. I believe in doing sites this way. It brings the visitor a much better experience.

The perfect site is not only user friendly, but optimized for the engines. You need to target where people go to in order to provide them with the information or product they need. There is nothing worse than having people landing on a page that is optimized for a phrase but offers no information about it… It brings the user a bad experience and you a missed sale or lead. You have a choice. You can target a general high traffic keyword you have little chance of ranking well for and get barely any traffic. Once you have a page optimized, you can streamline the transition from viewing what you have to offer to facilitate a purchase. You can also provide related content and links. This, in turn, will help with you PPC because Google is now checking to see how relevant your landing pages are to the keywords you buy.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Sometimes a site’s structure (the relationships between its content) must be altered too. Because of this it is, from a client’s perspective, always better to incorporate Search Engine Optimization when a website is being developed than to try and retroactively apply it.Make a good quality site that will attract natural links to it in order to obtain any form of long term presence within the search engine results page.Make a good quality site that will attract natural links to it in order to obtain any form of long term presence within the search engine results page.