New Search Engines - Can Anyone Beat Google?

Can any new search engine beat Google, probably not, mainly because Google isn't going anywhere but up. It is the dominant search engine with around 72 percent of U.S. online searches and its percentages are much higher in other parts of the world. (Source: Hitwise) However, there are some serious new competitors that may just take a bite out of Google's rosy search numbers. Never know, one or several of them, may just give Google a run for those all important search engine dollars.

Recently, there has been a whole army of new search engines debuting on the web. If you're a full-time online marketer like me, you really have to keep your eyes open to what is happening on the web, especially relating to search engines which deliver most of your quality traffic. Also keep in mind, this piece may be fairly biased since Google is directly or indirectly responsible for around 80% of my online revenue, so any opinions may be slanted in Google's favor, not that they need any favors from me or anyone.

 

But as an online marketer you have to try to remain objective and examine all angles in regards to these new search engines. Despite this, in marketing and webmaster circles, everyone will know even if you have the number one ranking for a certain keyword in all three major engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN - Google supplies the most traffic, hands down.

Despite its obvious dominance, Google is still basically the new kid on the block. We have to remember, there have been many search engines before Google and there will be many more search engines after Google. Every entity has its day and then hands the torch along to whatever comes next. It's one of those subtle facts of life we all learn eventually.

Everybody has their day - empires, countries, leaders, companies... or even search engines. Are Google's days as top dog really numbered? Probably not in the immediate future, but there are some new kids on the block that could definitely kick some sand in the face of Google and stir things up, we might even see a few serious squabbles here and there.

In a recent article on CNN, by John D. Sutter, entitled "New Search Engines Aspire To Supplement Google" the author examines some recent new search engines. The author discusses: Twine, Hakia, Searchme, Cuil, Kosmix, Wolfram Alpha, Topsy, TweetMeme and OneRiot. Each of these are different, making your web search more personal, more visual, or connecting your search to new social networks like FaceBook and Twitter.

Some experts say Wolfram Alpha is the most likely candidate to give Google some serious competition because Wolfram can do something Google can't; it can create information rather than just reading/presenting content already on the web. Will it present a solid threat to Google's dominance?

Perhaps, a more fitting sparring partner will come from an old rival with very deep, deep pockets. We are talking about the new search engine from Microsoft called Bing, which is very similar to Google in many ways, yet different. Bing's results are very similar to Google in a lot of ways, yet Bing serves up the results in a very pleasing arrangement, with a nice preview button for each listing and giving you related searches and your search history on the left hand side. Only time will tell if everyone would rather be binging instead of googling. To Bing or not to Bing, that is the question? There's a very informative article on Bing by Farhad Manjoo on Slate entitled: "Beware Google: Microsoft's New Search Engine Isn't Half-bad." Just Bing or Google to find it!

 

I personally like this search engine much better than MSN mainly because the home page of Bing is very appealing and only has the search box on it so you're not distracted with other news listings like on MSN and Yahoo! One of the main reasons for Google's success, besides the superior search results, has been its simplicity. Keep it simple and you may just be able to compete.

Then again, this is a bit of a biased judgment, since many of my own keywords and sites rank high in Bing; some even higher than they are listed in Google. I routinely monitor countless keyword phrases in all the search engines and lately Google has been favoring big Brand Name listings on their first page results. We are also seeing more Product Listings (Old Froogle), more video and more news listings... competition for Google's first page has become multi-layered and extremely competitive. What's a poor small online marketer to do when Google goes corporate?

Actually, Bing is not my favorite search engine of the new ones forcing their way into the spotlight.

For me, the one that shows the most promise and may give Google some competition is Searchme, which is a visual search (much like the iTunes interface) where you can shuffle through screenshots of webpages instead of a list of links. Searchme, which touts itself as the first multimedia search engine, has been around for a few years but is not widely known to web users. Performing a search on Searchme with a 24 inch monitor and 64-bit Windows is a hundred times more enjoyable than using Google Search or Bing for that matter. It is a hundred times faster than Google mainly because you can generally find your information without clicking through to the sites displayed.

 

Searchme is truly an eye opener but can it give Google some serious competition. The jury is still out, but I believe over time as web users upgrade their computers, operating systems, and their graphics... Searchme will be more accessible to more web users. Who knows, with the right backing and marketing, any of these search engines, especially Searchme and Bing could blossom into a formidable opponent even for the mighty Google.

Here's why: Human Nature!
Whether we admit it or not, most of us (Humans) are lazy, we want the fastest and easiest route to solving any question or problem. Searchme gives us the answer much quicker than Google and in a much nicer way. Mainly because we are also visual creatures, given the choice between receiving pages of text and viewing images of sites/answers, most of us will take the visual route - we will choose TV over radio, music videos over records... video enhanced content over just plain static HTML. As the web turns into more of an interactive multimedia operation; visual search will always win out over text search any day of the year.

Most humans also have a need for speed. In our fast paced life styles, we all want a speedy solution to our problems. Search is no different, we want quick answers now, we want instant solutions and immediate gratification. Nature of the beast. If Searchme, Bing or any of the other search engines becomes faster than Google at giving the right answer, then it's a whole new ballgame.

Google must obviously know there are challenges to its search engine dominance. Otherwise, why would they be offering many new features in their SERPs; we are seeing more images and videos. Plus, Google has just introduced the "show options" link at the top of their SERPs, which presents their search results in many different ways. They even have introduced the "Wonder Wheel" as another viewing option, which gives a whole new way of using Google's search results.

Google's Achilles' Heel may just be the thing that gives it all its revenue: text ads. There may be a backlash on all those Google ads littered across the web, especially among the younger computer savvy crowd using such sites like the Google owned YouTube, where Google has nearly obliterated the videos with its ads. Everyone dislikes advertising, no matter what form it takes.

However, any news of Google's demise will be greatly exaggerated, because Google, like any smart company with tons of resources, has kept morphing and changing with the times, quickly adapting to new features as our usage of the web keeps changing. Google has perfected the art of staying one step ahead of the competition. This is one champion that won't go down without a fight to the finish. Top dogs rarely do.

If they ever present a serious challenge to Google, Searchme, Bing or any of the above search engines, will have a formidable opponent in the opposing corner, one that has gained almost insurmountable prestige and brand recognition globally. Any major battle will instantly have a "David vs Goliath" scenario attached to it. And we all know how that one played out!

 

 

About The Author
The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous niche sites. These 10 SEO Tactics Bring Me Over 2000 Visitors Daily: SEO Tips. To learn more Internet Marketing Tactics try: Marketing Tools .

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Search Engine Optimization for Newbies

With so much information - and misinformation - available on the topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it can be tricky trying to separate fact from fiction.

 

Coupled with the fact that SEO changes only slightly less rapidly than the weather, it can be downright overwhelming to know where to start.

So, if you're an SEO newbie looking for a place to start, here's a look at some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) basics. What Is SEO?

Even the most beautifully-designed site won't do you much good if potential customers can't find it. That's where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in: SEO helps ensure your site is more visible in the search engines, drive qualified traffic to your website, and convert that traffic into actual customers.

In short, SEO increases your website's rankings in the search engines by making the pages within your site more attractive to the search engines. The more attractive your site is to Google, the higher its rankings in the search engine results pages. And the higher your rankings, the more likely users will visit your site. Obviously, a site with a result on Page 1 of Google is going to get more traffic than a site buried on Page 14.

If your site is missing from the top search results, then you may not be maximizing your ability to generate new business and add revenue to your bottom line. Let's take a look at some stats:

* 1.3 billion Internet users
* Over 85% start at a search engine
* Less than 25% will go beyond the top 10 search engine results
* Top 10 results get 80% more traffic than those ranked in the 11-30 spots

 

Besides gaining better rankings in the search engines, SEO is effective in several other areas as well:

* Branding/establishment as an authority
* Pre-qualified lead generation
* Easily tracked ROI
* Cost savings compared to other mediums such as glossy brochures and yellow pages ads (average cost per lead is $0.29!)

Breaking SEO Down
SEO consists of several key elements that work together to generate increases in a website's rankings, traffic and conversions: Keyword Selection, Copywriting, Link Building, HTML Optimization and Analytics. Let's take a look at each element in more detail:

Keyword Selection
The foundation of any SEO campaign is good keyword research. That's because targeting the right keywords is essential to getting your SEO on the right track. If your sell silver ladies watches, then you're going to want to rank in the search engines for the phrase "silver ladies watches" and other similar phrases. If your keyword research is off and you target the wrong keywords, then you may not get visitors who want what your site has to offer. That's why you need to make sure that your site is properly optimized for the most-searched-for keywords related to your business.

Copywriting
Getting potential customers to your site is only half the battle; you've got to convince them to buy. That's where persuasive copywriting comes in. Be sure to tell people why they need your products or services and include conversion points throughout the site. The search engines like content, so you also need to optimize your copy to include your keywords. This includes things like descriptive product pages, built-out content like biographies, news sections, etc. One important point to remember is to keep your most critical content "above the fold" - that's the area that's visible to your users before they have to scroll down.

Link Building
Think popularity contests ended in high school? Think again; you're not so lucky. Link building is like one big online popularity contest, and the search engines like the popular kids. Your success in the search engines depends, in part, on the amount of relevant incoming links to your site. Of course, having lots of good links also drives customers to your site, which is a good thing, too. Links can come in various sources, including directories, business partners, organizations, social media sites, and much, much more.

 

HTML Optimization
Title tags, header tags, Alt tags, Meta-descriptions -- the search engines want your site's HTML to be descriptive and clean. Search engines want to know exactly what your page is about; they don't want to sort through a bunch of extraneous code to figure it out. That's why you'll hear SEO types talk about the importance of having clean code and how to use CSS to make that happen.

Measuring Success
No SEO campaign is complete without analytics. After all, if you aren't measuring things like traffic, link popularity, and conversions, then how do you know if your SEO strategies are working? Programs like ClickTracks and Google Analytics help make the number-crunching a little easier. When analyzing an SEO campaign, it's important to only make one change at a time so that you know which changes are effective.

If you want to have an effective SEO campaign, you need to include each of the five SEO elements listed above. Keep in mind the information here just scratches the surface of these topics, and there are certainly other more advanced SEO strategies that can benefit your site as well. These building blocks, however, are the perfect way to get your SEO campaign started on the right track.

Check out our SEO case studies or get a free SEO analysis of your site now!

 

 

 

About the Author: Collyn Floyd is a marketing and public relations specialist with The Karcher Group, a web development and search engine marketing firm based in North Canton, OH. She is passionate about helping The Karcher Group's clients achieve greater online traffic, leads and sales through search engine optimization and marketing.

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How to get indexed by Google in ONE hour

If you’re not familiar with how some people accomplish getting their web sites submitted to Google quickly, you are going to absolutely love this article.

I’ve bet you’ve heard from many people that it can take days, weeks, even months to get indexed by Google. If you have heard that, you’re now thinking, “OK Jamie, you must have had a really stressful day at work today and you’re now hallucinating that this is possible!”.

If I read this blog title a while ago, I’m sure I would be thinking the same thing as you! Ok, let’s move on to how to get indexed by Google within one hour.

The secret is quite simple. Almost every site in today’s Internet world uses the social network sharing buttons. On my blog, http://www.endyourif.com I include it on every article page. I also include it on the main listing pages underneath my article summary.

If you don’t already have one of these on your sites, get one now, just search “Share This” or “Add This” and you will find a ton of web sites that tell you to put a few lines of Javascript code on your web site and it does the rest.

Ok, so now you have this button added to your web site? Perfect, I would suggest going to a page on your web site that you think will be the most valuable to other users and submit it to a couple of those sites listed in the button.

I have personally found excellent success with both Digg and Reddit. I launched a web site about 1 or 2 months ago, submitted two links to Digg. I waited about an hour or so and searched Google with keywords that I felt I targeted well and lo and behold there it was, my page was found and indexed with Google. Not only was it found, it was in the top 10!

Don’t just stop here though. Submitting to the above sites will provide you with some quick traffic. It won’t last long if people don’t like your site. Plus, it won’t cause your other pages to be indexed either. It really is just a start.

The next step is to create an XML sitemap of your content. Once you’ve done this, create an account on the Google Webmaster Tools. You will need to add your domain and verify your site before continuing.

Once you’ve completed this, add your sitemap that you previously created. Within a few minutes (some times longer), Google will validate your sitemap and queue all of your links to be indexed.

This of course is not a guaranteed solution to be indexed any faster. But Google certainly seems to crawl your sitemap on a regular basis and check the links. It also checks how often your site is updated, the more frequently it is updated, the more frequently Google will crawl your content!

 

If it’s possible, you should try to perform some kind of daily updates to your site. Ideally if you allow users to comment, hopefully there will be several new comments per day and this will cause your data to be considered new.

I hope you’ve found this article useful. Happy Googling! If you would like more tips and techniques, visit my blog at http://www.endyourif.com

 

I have been developing web sites for over 10 years and 6 years professional. I recently have decided to begin sharing my knowledge through articles and my blog:
http://www.endyourif.com

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11 Things Every Successful Website Needs

So you've put together a spectacular website, and you're ready to go live on the Internet for the whole world to see. Not so fast there Bucky. In case you didn't know, there are a few essential requirements that every site needs to include in order to be successful.
Let's review, shall we:

1) Privacy Policy/Disclaimer: Now, I'm not a lawyer and don't claim to be one, but these two documents should be standard issue for every site you have. People want to know how you're going to use their personal information, and a "privacy policy" does just that.

 

In today's litigious society you'll also need to include a disclaímer/terms of use page. This protects you and spells out to your visitors what they're agreeing to by using your website. If you don't know where to start in generating these documents, you'll find plenty of help online.
    • DMA Privacy Policy Generator
    • OECD Privacy Statement Generator
    • Google Adsense & other Ad Networks Privacy Policy Generator
    • Privacy Policy Generator
    • Free Site Disclaímer

This is not legal advice, and if you need help in this department, consult with a local attorney.

2) Contact Us Information: I can't tell you how many sites I've been to that fail to include a way to contact the owner. If you can't include a phone number, at the very least have an email address or a "contact us" form. By providing this information, you'll make your visitors feel more comfortable knowing there's a way to reach you should the need arise.

If you need a form and don't know how to create one, try these free form services.
    • Bravenet
    • Freedback
    • Email Me

3) Search Box/Site Map: If your site is rather large, you'll also want to include a way to search, or have what is called a "site map". There are many ways to add a search function to your site, the easiest being to use Google's free service or try PicoSearch A site map sounds technical, but it's just one web page that contains links to every page of your site, usually broken down by category. Some resources to help can be found at FreeFind.

4) Google Analytics/Tracking System: Once your site is up and running you'll want to keep your eye on traffic. Who's visiting your website, what pages are the most popular, where is the traffic coming from. All of these questions and more can be answered by using a good analytics program.

 

There are several ways to add a thorough tracking system to your site, but the easiest and one that won't cost you a dime is Google Analytics Once registered, you can add as many sites as you like all under one user ID and password. You'll be given some code to copy and paste on your pages. Simple, easy, and you're done.

5) Newsletter Sign Up/RSS Feed: There's an old saying that people won't buy from you the very first time they come to your website, so you need a way to stay in touch with them to bring them back again and again. By offering a newsletter, also known as an ezine, you'll be building a list of possible prospects which is invaluable to any site owner.

You'll find a multitude of free and low cost newsletter services online. It's up to you, depending on your needs and what you can afford. If you don't want to pay anything, my favorite free services are:
    • FreeAutoBot
    • Yahoo Groups

You can also provide an RSS feed for your newsletter, or updates to your blog or site. This makes it easy for others to keep up with your most recent posts. The best service for this is FeedBurner.

6) Consistent Navigation: This might sound like a no brainer, but many folks get it wrong. No matter what type of menu system you decide upon, make sure it stays the same across the board on all pages of your site.
Your job is to guide your visitors through your website, making sure they always know where they are and how to get to where they need to go.
For more see:
    • Eye on Web
    • Web Page Mistakes

7) Search Engine Optimized Copy: At first glance you might not think this is so important, but trust me it is. You want your pages to rank well with the search engines and there are a few steps you can take to ensure this happens.

 

Each page of your website should be optimized for 2, or at the most 3 keywords/phrases. Weave the keywords into your titles and into the body of each page. You can also include them in your image titles, alt tags, even in the names you give your pages. Look at each page individually and decide what it's about, then optimize accordingly.

For help see:
    • MarketLeap
    • CopyBlogger

8) Social Media Share Button: With the popularity of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, you'd be foolish not to include an easy way for your content to be shared with others.

You'll find many free services that will give you the code you need to instantly add a "share button" to your web pages so that visitors can instantly share them with their friends.
To generate your buttons see:
    • AddThis
    • TwitThis

 

9. Meta Tags:

Some may tell you that meta tags are dead. Don’t listen. Meta tags should be included in your HTML code at the top of every page. Many search engines will read them to pull a description to include in their search results.

 

Again, each page should be optimized separately and have a unique title, keywords, and description tags.

For help see:

• Submit Express: http://www.submitexpress.com/metatag.html
• Submit Corner: http://www.submitcorner.com/Tools/Meta/

10. Copyright Notice:

Sounds simple but forgotten by many. All pages should include a copyright notice. If you don’t want to have to update it manually every year, find a simple Javascript that will automatically do it for you. You’ll find one such script at:

• Uncle Jims: http://jdstiles.com/java/copyright.html

11. Trust Seals/Testimonials:

I grouped these two items together as they both instil trust and confidence in your visitors. Remember, when someone comes to your website, they don’t know who you are and if you’re selling something, they may not feel comfortable giving out their credit card information. To help them feel more “warm and fuzzy”, include trust seals for any organizations you belong to:

 

For example:

• iCop: http://i-cop.org/
• BBB: http://www.bbb.org/us/Business-Accreditation/
• Honest E Online: http://www.honesteonline.com/index.html

Also, if you have testimonials from happy customers, or ezine subscribers, weave them into your site copy. People always love to hear that others have had a happy experience with your products/services. Make sure you get permission first from the testimonial writers before placing them on your website.

 

So there you have it -my short list of what every site needs to succeed online. Now that you’re armed with this information, get out the magnifying glasses and take a close look at your own website to see what may be missing.

 

 

About The Author
Merle's Mission Blog - "Rants, Raves and Random Acts of Kindness" a self proclaimed "Internet Junkie" with a passion for net marketing, affiliate marketing, social networking. An avid Blogger and writer with several niche sites to her credít. Find out more at http://merlesworld.blogspot.com

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Using Social Media to Boost Search Engine Results

Most of us are well aware that the search engines frequently change their algorithms to improve search results for users (and foil spammers), which can make it challenging for small businesses just to keep up. But as web technology continues to evolve, it also creates new opportunities for small businesses to improve their SEO strategies and boost their rankings as well. Social media (sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Technorati, Digg, etc.) provide an excellent opportuníty for small businesses to not only promote their products and services online, but also to gain significant ground in the search engine results.

One of the most critical components to getting top search engine rankings is the number of inbound links and link popularity a web site is able to build. Although there are several existing link building strategies available to small businesses (e.g., press releases, directory submissions, article syndication, etc.), social media can help create additional high-value, on-target inbound links that are essential to achieving top placements in the search engines.

 

For example, each time you use Twitter to publish a link to new content on your web site, that link gets "planted" on the Twitter page of each person following you, and has the potential to spread even further as your followers share that information with their own network of contacts.

Integrated Social Marketing (ISM)TM
If you have properly integrated your social networking profiles together, that same Twitter "tweet" could then be fed via RSS to your Facebook business profile, your corporate blog, your LinkedIn account, and any number of other social sites that you have set up for your business. It's not a far stretch to imagine the link you broadcast on Twitter could reach dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of other places on the web, all pointing back to your web site! By integrating your social networking profiles with each other, with your web site, and with your existing marketing initiatives, you can easily make one single marketing action (such as a tweet) show up in multiple places online, each containing a new, relevant inbound link to your site.

Quantity AND Quality
In addition to the sheer number of inbound links that are created through social marketing, the value of the links that are created is another important criterion that search engines consider. To be valued by the search engines, inbound links must be from relevant, "quality" web sites, and search engines today give social sites like Facebook and Twitter great value. These sites are highly visible to the search engines, and are constantly taking updates from users. Links tend to be shared according to subject matter, which means the search engines will see them as being relevant and on-target. All of these factors combine to create high-quality inbound links in the eyes of the search engines.

 

Online Visibility and Branding
Creating visibility for your business and your "brand" is really key when using social media for building links. The power of social media is realized when other users see your links or content, then share that information with their own network of contacts. Simply adding a bunch of links to your social profiles is not enough; you need to have a strong reputation and a brand that users trust so they will feel comfortable sharing your content with others. Brand recognition typically leads to natural link building anyway, which means your inbound links will end up coming from bloggers, colleagues, customers, and other people who are exposed to your links and find them useful enough to share with their own contacts.

 

The Proof is in the Rankings
A recent example from Website Magazine explained somewhat surprising results when they searched for their publication's name in Google. As expected, their web site came up as the number one listing on the results page. But what was not expected was the number three listing on the results page was the magazine's Twitter page. They then performed a number of Google searches for the terms "Chicago Tribune," "Chicago Public Golf," and "Daily Career Tips," all with similar results in Google - the Twitter page for each of these terms came up near the top of the search engine results every time.

The conclusion was that given these results, Google must be giving serious weight to Twitter content, and I happen to agree. The search engines of course keep their ranking algorithms top-secret, so there's no way to know how much weight (if any) is really given to Twitter or other social media sites. But results like those in the example above are hard to ignore!

A Great Opportunity
Social media is here to stay, and small businesses are beginning to use it to effectively promote their businesses, reach their customers, find new leads, keep customer mindshare, and instantly communicate with customers. But maybe one of the biggest benefits of adding social media to your marketing mix is the creation of high-value, on-target inbound links that can help improve visibility in the search engines and boost your business to the top of the search engine rankings.

 

 

About The Author
Lauren Hobson, President of Five Sparrows, LLC, has more than 16 years of experience in small business technology writing, marketing, and web site design and development. Five Sparrows provides professional web site and marketing services to small businesses and non-profit organizations, giving them access to high-quality services at affordable prices. To read articles or subscribe to Biz Talk, please visit www.FiveSparrows.com/biztalk.htm.

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How To Write For Search Engines

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writing, as a distinct style, was born in the Internet era and has matured before our very eyes in a relatively short span of time. Although it is evolving and maturing still, and will continuously do so, we can define some of the tried and tested steps of content optimization to help unique pages place at or near the top of search engine rankings.

Some experts go on to say that the goal of SEO is two-fold, with the first objective to put out the appropriate "bait" for search engine spiders and the second to serve up useful information to people who want and need it. Debates about priorities continue among SEO professionals, but it is not a good idea to devalue the human factors in any success formula. The singular goal, then, would be to develop, position and refine content in such a way as to satisfy all visitors to the page and/or site, both human and bot alike.

Rethinking Search Engine Content Terms
"Content is king," goes the old saying - and not only is good content king, it is becoming more important with every passing day. But the term content is best taken in its broadest sense. Content is not simply the written copy placed in a document, assembled on a page, or aggregated at a site. It includes all this, of course, but content actually comprises titles, headings, tags, intra-site links and external links, as well.

 

All of these components need to work together and form an interconnected whole so that both search engines and humans find the right things, come to the right conclusions and, most importantly, make the right decisions. Good writing is always targeted to the audience, and you are writing for an audience of two readers, human and software. Remember these two components of the audience and find creative ways to reach both of them at the same time.

First Things First
Titles are critically important - they are usually the first thing read by both real and virtual visitors. A title is the "primary topical identifier" and, as such, has an invaluable function - again, a dual-purpose one. It must contain keyword targets at the individual word level while stoking interest in potential readers at the phrase level.

When a person performs a search, the title is both their first indication of your relevance to their needs and your first chance to compel them to click through. Search engines, more clinical and objective, give the title importance because they see it as an indicator of the page's main idea.

Yet many pages on the Internet have no title at all, or share "Home" and "Untitled" with several million others. There is no excuse for this oversight. The ignorant cousin of these mistakes, making the company name by itself the title of every page, is just as bad. Keywords relevant to the page should be part of every page's title.

Heading tags carry some importance too. Simply put, heading tags define the headings and subheadings of your article to both readers and spiders. By default they appear larger than normal text and are bolded. While not a magic ranking bullet, they are looked at with more importance than average text and are a chance to show spiders the themes of your content and what keywords you wish to rank for.

The H1 tag is the main heading of your article and carries the most importance, like a headline in a newspaper article. It should clearly convey the article's topic to the reader and main keywords to the search engines. H2 tags are one level down in importance and structure. Use them to define subtopics under your main topic, and again use keywords where descriptive and useful. If you needed to break down your article to sub-sub-headings, you would use the H3 tags, and so forth.

 

For both human and robotic readers, it is vital to keep page content focused. The "one topic per page" rule is an unwritten one, certainly, and it's followed by most professional content developers. This has less to do with the intelligence of the readers (either kind) than it does with several other considerations. For one thing, search engine "crawlers" have algorithms that tend to work best on one concept at a time, and most humans work best this way, too.

In addition, limiting the focus eases the task of placing keywords in the meta descriptions, page title, body copy, tags and links. Finally, dealing with more than one topic necessarily means using more verbiage, which dilutes the potency of a site-wide SEO program and may negatively impact ranking. Better to give these other topics their own content, strengthening your site's overall informational authority.

SEO Copywriting Balance
Much ink has been spilled and many pixels propagated in discussing SEO techniques, analyzing strategies, teaching "web content" writing, and chasing changing algorithms. Mentioned less but encompassing everything is that SEO copywriting, like all SEO, is about balance.

While articles such as this one can be helpful, it is important to understand that SEO will always evolve, change, adapt and improve. Study and implement tested techniques, but remain flexible and nimble. Writing for search engines and people at the same time is tricky and challenging at best, and can be frustrating and time-consuming, too. Approach the challenges in a businesslike fashion.

SEO content writing at its best balances art with science, blending the craft of engaging the reader with the dispassionate analysis of keywords on a page. Follow best practices, but fill each article to the brim with information useful to your demographic.

In simultaneously targeting a subject, an audience, and an algorithm, a great deal of creativity must take place to get effective SEO results. And, of course, it all has to happen in an environment that encourages short attention spans and constantly tries to lure people elsewhere. It is a major challenge to craft article titles and copy so compelling as to make people stop and read - or, better yet, stop and then clíck where you want them to.

Basics, Opportunities, and Consistency
The basic approach to writing for such a dynamic, ever-changing environment is to get to the point quickly. The "USA Today" news style - which relies on short headlines, descriptive sub-headlines and a few concise paragraphs - is perhaps the best analogy for good SEO writing. The important points (keywords) should appear early and often, and within a short period of time the human readers should know what they are supposed to do, while the search engines should be able to tell what the page is about from a consistency between your page structure and your body copy.

In the eyes of the search engines, everything that it can possibly see counts. That is, using image alt-text not only helps blind readers and people using phone- or text-based browsers, it also gives you another chance to add more descriptive strength to the overall page for the search engines. Do not miss any opportunity to further empower and refine your content.

And always remember when writing for search engines - keep writing. Write write write. Search engine bots gorge on new information, and if you consistently update your site with fresh content they will come around more often. While this gives you more opportunities to display your value, more importantly it builds the foundation of information that obviates it.

There's a lot to do, and it all needs to be done well. Use your numbers, metrics and analytics to point you in the right direction for creating more content. That's some science. Your creativity and amount of useful information, on the other hand, will point site visitors and search engines in the right direction. That's a touch of art. When both aspects of your SEO program are firing on all cylinders, you should soon be marching up the search engine rankings.

About The Author
Matt Tuens is a copywriter for Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization, Inc. Beanstalk offers expert SEO services, consulting, link building and SEO copywriting services. Visit online for more information.

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Avoiding Top SEO Mistakes

Following are the 9 Biggest SEO Mistakes which Web Designers & Web Developers should avoid.

 

Splash Page
I've seen this mistake many times where people put up just a big banner image and a link "Click here to enter" on their homepage. The worst case -- the "enter" link is embedded in the Flash object, which makes it impossible for the spiders to follow the link.

This is fine if you don't care about what a search engine knows about your site; otherwise, you're making a BIG mistake. Your homepage is probably your website's highest ranking page and gets crawled frequently by web spiders. Your internal pages will not appear in the search engine index without the proper linking structure to internal pages for the spider to follow.

Your homepage should include (at minimum) target keywords and links to important pages.

Non-spiderable Flash Menus
Many designers make this mistake by using Flash menus such as those fade-in and animated menus. They might look cool to you but they can't be seen by the search engines; and thus the links in the Flash menu will not be followed.

Image and Flash Content
Web spiders are like a text-based browser, they can't read the text embedded in the graphic image or Flash. Most designers make this mistake by embedding the important content (such as target keywords) in Flash and image.

 

Overuse of Ajax
A lot of developers are trying to impress their visitor by implementing massive Ajax features (particularly for navigation purposes), but did you know that it is a big SEO mistake? Because, ajax content is loaded dynamically, so it is not spiderable or indexable by search engines.

Another disadvantage of Ajax -- since the address URL doesn't reload, your visitor can not send the current page to their friends.

Versioning of Theme Design
For some reason, some designers love to version their theme design into sub level folders (i.e. domain.com/v2, v3, v4) and redirect to the new folder. Constantly changing the main root location may cause you to lose backlink counts and ranking.

"Click Here" Link Anchor Text
You probably see this a lot where people use "Click here" or "Learn more" as the linking text. This is great if you want to be ranked high for "Click Here". But, if you want to tell the search engine that your page is important for a topic, than use, that topic/keyword in your link anchor text. It's much more descriptive (and relevant) to say "learn more about {keyword topic}"

Warning: Don't use the EXACT same anchor text everywhere on your website. This can sometimes be seen as search engine spam too.

Common Title Tag Mistakes

Same or similar title text:
Every page on your site should have a unique <title> tag with the target keywords in it. Many developers make the mistake of having the same or similar title tags throughout the entire site. That's like telling the search engine that EVERY page on your site refers to the same topic and one isn't any more unique than the other.

One good example of bad Title Tag use would be the default WordPress theme. In case you didn't know, the title tag of the default WordPress theme isn't that useful: Site Name > Blog Archive > Post Title. Why isn't this search engine friendly? Because, every single blog post will have the same text "Site Name > Blog Archive >" at the beginning of the Title Tag. If you really want to include the site name in the title tag, it should be at the end: Post Title | Site Name.

 

Exceeding the 65 character limit:
Many bloggers write very long post titles. So what? In search engine result pages, your title tag is used as the link heading. You have about 65 characters (including spaces) to get your message across or risk it getting cutoff.

Keyword stuffing the title:
Another common mistake people tend to make is overfilling the title tag with keywords. Saying the same thing 3 times doesn't make you more relevant. Keyword stuffing in the Title Tag is looked at as search engine spam (not good). But it might be smart to repeat the same word in different ways:

"Photo Tips & Photography Techniques for Great Pictures" "Photo" and "Photography" are the same word repeated twice but in different ways because your audience might use either one when performing a search query.

Empty Image Alt Attribute
You should always describe your image in the alt attribute. The alt attribute is what describes your image to a blind web user. Guess what? Search engines can't see images so your alt attribute is a factor in illustrating what your page is relevant for.

Hint: Properly describing your images can help your ranking in the image search results. For example, Google image search brings me hundreds of referrals everyday for the search terms "abstract" and "dj".

Unfriendly URLs
Most blog or CMS platforms have a friendly URL feature built-in, however, not every blogger is taking advantage of this. Friendly URL's are good for both your human audience and the search engines. The URL is also an important spot where your keywords should appear.

Example of Friendly URL: domain.com/page-title Example of Dynamic URL: domain.com/?p=12356

These things are the pillars of Search Engine Optimization and so to your web site's success path.

 

 

About the Author: Robin Dale is the publisher for www.teeky.org, we offer useful & quality articles and news about Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Dedicated Server Hosting, Windows VPS Hosting UK, Linux VPS Hosting UK, e-commerce hosting, cPanel Hosting, hosting tips & UK Web Hosting.

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