Hi guys.

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.

You know you want it. But how?

There are many, many ways to get traffic on the internet.  But unless it’s targeted and relevant, it’s usually of little use.  Your blog, just as any website, needs targeted traffic.

The great thing about blogs is that they can, if properly structured and written, “self-target”.  Remembering the basics of blog traffic which we’ve written about before, we focus on the deeper and most important principles of this topic.

To Pay Or Not To Pay

There are a variety of ways you can pay to attract targeted visitors through a variety of services.  We pick up on some of these, below.

Like everything else, you need to consider your ROI (Return On Investment) carefully.  Whilst you may get the traffic, will it ‘convert’ and so is it useful.  It depends entirely what you want to achieve.  For example: are you interested in achieving sales or, perhaps, just interested in providing good, widely-read content.

Look at your endgame and work “backwards”.  It will quite quickly become apparent whether or not spending your budget on targeted traffic is worth it, even if it is viable.

Free Traffic

Well, there is such a thing as a free lunch on the internet  :)

No, we don’t mean the slick products which promise the earth and don’t deliver.  We mean focusing on properly optimizing your website and letting the search engines, particularly Google, deliver your targeted traffic.

Think back to all we’ve discussed before:  good quality, relevant information is what people want.  Or good quality, effective services which are relevant to their need.  Or good quality, relevant goods.  There’s a theme, here In many ways, the “new economy” on the ‘net is exactly the same as the old one: you deliver properly, well and on-time and you succeed.  You “over-deliver” (providing more than expected, perhaps before expected) and you produce repeat visitors/customers.

It’s not rocket science, but it’s missed time and time again and only a (very) small minority put this into practice.  If you don’t believe us, or you just don’t fully understand where we’re coming from, there are few better than Ken Evoy on this topic. And when it comes to building websites, and blogs, which get real, targeted, visitors, Ken talks about strategies he and his many associates employ to do just that. Whilst he does offer good quality tools to do it (don’t click on this link if you’re after ‘get rich quick’ – he doesn’t even go there, quite rightly), he also gives a really great lesson on targeted traffic and getting to the point.

Paid Traffic

Be careful.  There are a plethora of ‘wonder services’ out there which just don’t cut it.  They are often over-priced.  Worse, they can damage your rankings.

But there are some decent products and there is some good advice if you look and think carefully.  It takes time and experience to work through this – there is no immediate advice on offer.

Whatever happens, don’t risk your relationship with the search engines.  They are your lifeline for traffic: don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

It is worth looking at directories and forums as a way of finding like-minded individuals who want a particular service or type of information.  Makes sense, doesn’t it.  And, generally, they don’t charge more than nominal fees.  We won’t provide particular recommendations, but take a look.

Speak soon.

We recommend you dig deep into this topic, but now have a partnership with a world expert on the topic who is providing a free 5-day course, here. Feel free to head to that and then read the rest of this post, or just continue reading: it’s entirely up to you. Either way will benefit you.

A commonly-asked question for those who use Adwords: “Why do you put quotation marks and square brackets around some keywords?”

To dig-down on this one, let’s look at what the matching options mean, and how they affect results:

Broad Match. This is where a keyword phrase is written as is, for example: google adwords

This method means that your Ad will potentially be shown to anyone searching for ‘google’ and ‘adwords’, in any order and possibly with other terms. So, anyone searching for ‘adwords google help’ could see your Ad.

Phrase Match. This is where a keyword phrase is enclosed by quotation marks, for example: “google adwords”

Basically, this is the next step up from Broad Match – your Ad could be shown to anyone searching for ‘google’ and ‘adwords’, but only in that order, and possibly with other terms included in the search. So, ‘how to start a google adwords campaign’ could trigger your Ad to be shown.

Exact Match. This is the last in the ‘positive’ matching options and is where your keyword phrase is enclosed by square brackets, for example: [google adwords]

This is the most specific of the three types. In this case, your advert will only be shown if somebody searches for ‘google adwords’ in that order and with no other terms.

These options each have their own merits, but generally, the more specific the search term, the higher your CTR (Click Through Rate).

If you have a small niche to start with, then Broad Match will give you the most exposure. The downside is that the large number of triggering phrases could push your CPC (cost per click) up, as a result of competition.

Larger markets require highly-targeted Ads, and this is where Exact Match (and Phrase Match, to an extent) comes into play. Imagine trying to get clicks from keywords such as ‘car parts’ compared to ‘ford fiesta rear wheel bearing’. Obviously, the more specific your keyword terms, the more likely you are to get an interested visitor to your site.

The last of the keyword matching options is Negative Keyword. This is where a keyword is precluded by a minus sign, for example: -tricks

This stops your Ad from being shown if somebody searches using that term. For example, ‘google adwords tricks’ would stop your Ad from being shown.

This is useful for prequalifying prospect clients – if you are trying to sell something, then ‘-free’ would be a good term to include in your Keyword list.

Of course, as with any marketing campaign, which of these methods will work best for you is unpredictable, so always remember to test, test test!

Best of luck. When used in the right way, Adwords is stunningly powerful. We’re going to run more features on this in the future.

Free 5-day course, here.

To kill any blog, just stop posting to it!  Whatever the reason, whether pace of life, other projects or lack of enthusiasm. None of us like to think about these things, but if you want a successful blog, you must!

Everyone experiences similar issues in the world of blogging.  Learn from them and move on.

Keep it vibrant, keep it interesting and keep it useful.

HERE ARE MY 5 TOP TIPS:

1. Why not try something NEW. What we find helpful in lifting posting back up is to open the door to something new. Try topic you’ve not looked at before, start some kind of project or competition, start a series of posts or write in a different style or voice – sometimes doing something ‘new’ can not only give you energy but your readers also.

2. Just like ‘conventional’ writers, bloggers suffer from ‘blocking’ – bloggers block, if you like.  A great tip is to try a new blogging environment. Why not leave the house to do some blogging. If you’re not able to actually take your mac/pc out of the house (you don’t have a laptop) then grab a notebook and head out with that to brainstorm topics, write or do some planning of your blog. Go to the park. The cafe. Wherever you enjoy.

3. Set REALISTIC goals and deadlines. Be clear with yourself as to targets and goals, but don’t be too ambitious. Set yourself some achievable goals to get yourself going again. Perhaps your goal will be simply to post once this next week. Then after that, post twice, three times… your own pace but a targeted pace. If you’re simply feeling apathy, try writing shorter posts. Why not break down the topic into something more bite sized? It will probably read better and you’ll appreciate it more.

4. Set rewards/incentives. Some people respond well to this – set yourself a few rewards that you’ll give yourself when you reach certain milestones.

5. Convert something from your daily life into a post. Personal life experience interests readers and it will interest you. Why not video yourself doing something, record a conversation, use an email interaction etc. So many things that you do each day are potentially very powerful, great content for your blog – the key is to be aware of them and find a way to collect and use them.

Very, very importantly, read this but don’t let it distract you from the task at hand. Go for it. I know you can. You know you can.  It’s in there – let it out!  Good luck, but most of all enjoy and let it flow.

What’s more important? Creating sites for users or the engines? The answer is both.

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.

There are two kinds of traffic on the net, quality and… Well, not such high quality. Quality traffic represents a target demographic who may actually be interested in the product or service you are providing. These people are likely to return to your site if they like what they find, and there’s a distinct possibility that they will generate you significant revenue over time. Low quality traffic will usually make up the majority of your visitors; these are people who landed from search engine links, from reciprocal linking programs and random news sources. These people are unlikely to tour your website, and will have little interest in anything other than the exact reason they landed on your website.

What’s so bad about low quality traffic? Well, there is nothing inherently bad about low quality traffic if you are prepared for it, but there are a few things that it might represent:

1. Search engines don’t understand your website very well and are sending the wrong people

2. You are over extending your marketing programs. Untargeted marketing is next to useless.

3. Quality traffic might not be able to find your website as a result of the first two points!

In addition to all these, low quality traffic costs you money! Though you might expect to offset your bandwidth and hosting charges with advertising revenues, low quality surfers are unlikely to pay for themselves, leaving your high quality traffic to pick up the bill.

Low quality traffic might look good on your monthly statistics, but a low quality surfer isn’t a tenth as valuable to you as a high quality one. Retarget your advertising campaigns, cut down on low quality referrals and slim down that hit count statistic. If you can remove ten low quality surfers, and replace them with just one new high quality surfer then you’ll improve the profitability and overall popularity of your website considerably.

There’s arguably no finer way to reach people on the web, than with a well written blog. Whether your objective is business promotion, search engine optimization or good old fashioned journal keeping, the blog is still where it’s at. That’s all very well if you’ve already got a captive audience through a personal website or business, but how do you find new readers, and most importantly; keep the old ones?

Firstly, you’ve got to embrace one principle which applies to all blogs, even if their main function is to act as search engine optimizers: Your blog content must be original and information rich. Search engines and normal readers’ alike share a desire for new information and experience. If we want our blogs to be widely read and popular we must please humans and computers in equal measure, so lots of rich new information in each blog is a great place to start!

If you are writing a personal blog, then don’t write about everyday experiences unless you are prepared to discuss your associated feelings in an unusually open manner. Think about what really drives great plots in TV shows: They are all about emotion! You don’t have to be cynical and calculating about your blog writing, but be aware that using the odd literary technique to generate suspense and emotion where you might feel it in your everyday life is a fantastic way to keep readers.

If you are writing for search engines, don’t forget the readers. Search engine bots are becoming increasingly advanced and are now capable of recognizing poorly written content. The penalty is that a poorly written blog with a similar number of keywords will fall well below a well written entry on search results. Keep things legible and don’t overdo those blogging keywords!

Finally: Keep it regular! There’s nothing readers and bots like more than a good regular dose of the thing they visit the site for. Regular updating will work over time to generate long term blog readers, and it’ll keep bots happy because they can figure out a schedule to visit your site and know that they will always find new content. Get out there and get blogging!

If you are interested in optimizing your web site or blog so that it does well in the search engines, one of the most important factors will be how many incoming links you can get pointing to your site. While other things are important, such as on-page optimization and filling out the various tags with the keywords that you are targeting, without receiving ample links to your web site, you won’t do well in the search engines.

There is a lot a competition for high rankings. This is because high rankings provides individuals and businesses with free advertising. Therefore, you will need to be prepared to play the game. In order to win, you must have a good number of quality, incoming links. We will be discussing various places where you can pick up good links for your web site. Some of the common and most effective ways include using articles, social networking and bookmarking sites, related blogs, forums, press releases and even Google and Yahoo groups.

Articles continue to be a great way to get incoming links and also to pick up some extra traffic. If you write a good article (one that is not a sales pitch), on a popular topic you can expect to get hundreds of page views just from one very good article directory, such as Ezine Articles. To ramp up the amount of traffic that you get from article directories, it is best to submit them to more than one article directory. You can attempt to go big and submit your articles to hundreds of article directories or you can simply submit to the top 20 to 25. It is important to note that if you’re using articles for building links, then you will want to submit different versions of your articles at the various article directories. You can spin the article yourself or you can use a service such as submityourarticle.com, which will spin the article for you and then send them out to a number of article directories.

Social networking and bookmarking sites are also a very good  way to create incoming links. You simply need to write a short, news blurb about your website and add the link. If you use social bookmarking sites, you can simply add your link.

Blogs on related topics are also a very good to use for back links. However, don’t comment spam. Leave a comment that shows that you have actually read the blog and have gotten something out of it and want to give something back through your comment.

Forums are another excellent way to build links. Simply create a hyper link that includes the keyword that you are targeting. Press releases work similarly to articles. Some of the very top press release sites will likely get you included in Google News. Other webmasters may pick up your release, place it on their site, resulting in incoming links and hopefully an influx of traffic.

Google and Yahoo groups are another way to get links. Again, you don’t want to spam. If you find a topic that you are interested in, post something of value to the group and then leave your link.

These are all various ways to build links to your web site or blog. They have all proven to be very effective in building links and should also help you pick up some extra traffic along the way.