SEO : Top 10 Tips to Get Websites Backlinks

Thinking of outsourcing your reciprocal linking? Think again. There are more benefits to linking than just getting links. Consider doing at least some work yourself.

First let’s make a master list, all the usual ways we can think of to get quality, relevant links back to a website.

1. Fill out a form or email a webmaster, asking for a reciprocal link.
We’ll assume for the purpose of clarity that we mean exchanging links to post to a traditional directory page.

2. Deep linking.
You embed your partner’s link into relevant text on a page other than your directory page, and your partner does the same with your link.

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Search Engine Tricks : 5 Tips For Improving Your Site`s Search Engine Positioning

Search Engine Tricks : 5 Tips For Improving Your Site`s Search Engine Positioning by Donald Nelson

Almost all webmasters or website owners are looking for ways to get better results from their websites. They wish to improve their site's standing and get better rankings in search engines. This quest for improved results, known as search engine positioning, can be satisfied by following a few basic procedures.

Before you even begin, you have to realize that you are competing against hundreds, and in some categories, thousands of websites offering similar products and services. In the case of affiliate marketing, many of the competing websites may even be identical! If you want to get the edge over these competitors and improve your search engine positioning you have to fine-tune your website and actively work to make it better.

1. Make Sure that your design is search engine friendly:

Your design may look good to your eyes, but it may also be the cause of you present difficulties and poor search engine positioning. How is that possible? Look at your web page using a text editor or the html view of popular editors such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage. On what line does your first line of copy begin? If your actual copy is pushed far down the page, it is more difficult for search engines to pick up the crucial information that would have helped you to improve your web page ranking.

If you have this difficulty, first take out all unnecessary spaces in the html code. If there are long strings of java script, put these in external files. Similarly, put style information in external Cascading Style Sheet files. Simplifying your table structure may also help. If this starts getting too complicated for you, then consult with a professional search engine positioning specialist or your web designer.

2. Make sure your keywords are strategically placed in your copy:

It is not possible to improve web page ranking if the readable copy on your web page does not contain the words you wish to be found by. Many people erroneously think that just putting your important keywords in meta tags is enough. This is not true, some search engines hardly use the meta tags and look more to the copy on the page. Make sure that your important copy is in the first paragraph of text, in headlines (using headers such as H1, H2, H3) and in the active or clickable portions of link text on your page.

3. Use a site map and text link navigation on your pages:

If you want to improve your search engine positioning for all the pages of your website then you have to be sure that these pages actually get indexed or included in the search engines. You can help this process along by making a site map, a web page that has text links to all the sub pages of your site. Another good practice is to include a text link navigation system on your web pages, even if you already have a graphics based navigation bar elsewhere on these same pages. Remember, search engines follow text links more easily. A robot that lands on your main page or site map page will follow the text links and then visit and index your lower level pages.

4. Increase the quantity and quality of inbound links:

In fiercely competitive categories it will be difficult to improve web page ranking without obtaining a good number of links to your page from other websites. If you have very good and valuable copy, other sites may link to you because you are a valuable resource. However, if you want to speed this process along you will have to actively request links from other websites, either by trading links or by getting your content (with a link back to your site) placed on other websites.
When it comes to links you should keep in mind one important principle: it is not the quantity of links that is important, but the quality. One good link from an authority site such as CNN or Wikipedia is worth more than dozens of links from other sites. To get these quality links, there is no short cut. You will have to earn it by having a site that provides a lot of useful information.

5. Keep up with Search Engine Developments:

The challenge of improving your web page ranking and search engine positioning is dynamic. Search engines are not static. Most of the big search engines of yesterday have disappeared or are only minor players today. You should keep up with changes in the world of search engines by taking part in online forums or subscribing to newsletters which deal with topics such as search engine optimization, web ranking, and general webmaster related issues.

For years I have been getting great information from the Led Digest, a subscription list which is sent out several times a week. You can see samples online at www.led-digest.com

If you do not have the expertise or the time to tackle these matters by yourself then you should take advantage of skilled professionals who can help you to improve your site's performance in search engines. Whether you rely on professionals or are able to do it yourself, these five tips can provide a good point of reference for starting the work.

About the Author:

Donald Nelson is a web developer and the proprietor of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com . His firm offers affordable website copywriting, search engine optimization, and linking services. He is also the editor of the A1-Article Directory, http://www.a1-articledirectory.com , a source for free reprint articles.

Getting The Most Out of Your Pay-Per-Click and Keyword Campaign

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is quickly becoming the fastest and most effective way to reach the top search engine rankings for given key words and phrases. The concept is simple - we pay or bid competitively, for the placement within each search phrase.

While many of the search engines still have free inclusion, this does not always guarantee top placement. Keyword saturation and search engine optimization or the purposeful use of the keywords often within the website content, is also an unpredictable and often unsuccessful method of gaining ranking.

PPC ads are similar to typical ads within Search Engine Ranking Pages (SERP’s), but they are above free listings often labeled ”Sponsored Sites.” While some offer image or banner advertising in the same auction manner, most PPC ad services focus on text ads with a website URL and brief description of what the site offers.

Where each ad is placed depends on the keywords and key phrases you select for your ad campaign. Depending on the PPC search engine, this fee may be as low as $.01 going up based on popularity, demand and exactly how much others are willing to pay for high placement.

While advertisers pay only by the actual clicks made, visibility is, in essence, free. However there is an unspoken fee associated with “unpopular” or rarely clicked ads. Most Pay-Per-Click services balance the ad click-through rate (CTR) or how many times a viewer clicks the ad and the bid amount we’re willing to pay for each click when determining the ultimate seniority of each ad. Because CTR does play a significant role in placement, its wise to bid higher at the outset to gain significant clicks. It is also wise to gain as much interest and click through with each ad as possible to establish a stronger and lower priced ranking. Once this seniority is established, the cost may be lowered without harming the position quite as much.

PPC advertising offers instant results, good or bad. Once an ad is placed, it may be online immediately (in the case of Google AdWords) or within a week (in the case of Overture), receiving clicks and being rated immediately. Because of this instant response, unpopular keywords can be disenabled if not attended to fast enough making it next to impossible to use the keyword or phrase again. Also, because Pay-Per-Click advertising is an auction-style marketplace, SERP placement changes constantly.

To meet these needs, many major PPC advertising engines allow budget and automatic bid set-up. This allows you to put a maximum per day or per campaign budget on clicks, after which the ad is taken down until the budget is either replenished or automatically rolled-over to the next period. For instance, an advertiser may place a budget of $100 dollars per day on a campaign. When clicks meets this ceiling, ads stop until the next day to use up the next $100.

When conducting a Pay-Per-Click ad campaign, remember to keep the customer and their motivation in mind, develop a list of keywords that describe the products and services, target keywords the customer will be searching for and use specific phrases that clearly define the offering. Veer away from broad keyword matches, items we don’t offer or information that isn’t available on the website.

The current PPC marketing has more advertising demand than available, top-ranking spots. It’s not yet known how this demand will measure out or how PPC services will address this concern in the future.

Possibly the most important part of developing PPC ad campaigns is finding the right keyword phrases. To begin developing a strong keyword phrase list, type the initial ideas of what people would search for when seeking the website in a new Excel spreadsheet. Look through the site and analyze the words that describe the products or service. Review the website, identifying words that would be of most interest to the viewers. Check web server logs to find the words visitors currently use to find the site and what pages they find most interesting. Consider what action the customer should take - find information, purchase something, bookmark the site for latter shopping or other positive advertising result.

Use the Google Keyword Tool, Overture Keyword Tool or WordTracker.com to find other relevant searches around the initial ideas. Its best practice to use the longest search phrases possible, using those no less than three words long. The more specific, the lower the cost and the more targeted traffic received. If selling specific brands, use the brand names in the keyword phrases.

Customers search during all phases of the shopping cycle - from gathering data to comparing prices and finally submitting their credit card with the store. Use keywords within each phase, considering the highest conversion will come from the audience ready to buy.

Each keyword phrase should be product or service specific. Select the type of keyword searches the ad will show under, such as broad matches, exact matches, negative matches and so forth. For example, a bookshop may want to advertise under the key word phrase “car books,” but not show up for the search term “Kelly blue book cars.” They have the option of blocking searches with the term “Kelly blue book cars” in the phrase.

Keyword selection is important to narrow down the exact target audience and search relevance. Additionally, the ads gain a stronger click-through rate or CTR when carefully targeted to the search traffic. Ads with low CTR may be disenabled. Ads with high CTR will gain higher ranking at a lower bid cost.

When we target exactly what the consumer is looking for, conversion rate increases significantly.

When searching online, potential customers may type many variations of the keywords including misspellings, plural form or switched word orders. So use these in the Pay-Per-Click ads also to gain the strongest and broadest audience range.

When we target exactly what the consumer is looking for, conversion rate increases significantly.

When searching online, potential customers may type many variations of the keywords including misspellings, plural form or switched word orders. So use these in the PPC ads also to gain the strongest and broadest audience range.

Needless to say there are far more aspects to Pay-Per-Click and Keyword Selection than I can cover in this article but the information provided here should give you a good insight into understanding how important it is to have a good understanding of how the whole Pay-Per-Click and keyword selection works.

Don’t give up! If at first you don’t succeed, TRY, TRY, AGAIN! There is a lot to learn when starting a online business. Give yourself a break and don’t set unrealistic goals. Contrary to popular beliefs, having a successful, profit making, online business doesn’t happen overnight.

So, Good Luck, Make Money and Have Fun Doing It - Shirley Kelly

About this author :-

Shirley Kelly is a full time internet marketer who has written over 200 articles in print and 5 published ebooks. Her passion is helping others avoid the mistakes she made when she launched her first website. Her motto is "Knowledge is power and power is having a good understanding about what you're doing." To download her latest ebook “The Newbies Guide To Internet Marketing” visit her online at www.websitemarketing2.com

How to prevent yourself from getting banned from adsense

Are you using Adsense in your website or blogs? Prevent yourself from getting banned from adsense by following these simple rules.

1) Read the TOS and Programe Policy of Adsense. And follow all that very strictly. Remember it changes as well, so keep looking it as frequently as possible.

2) Don’t tell your adsense websites to anyone you know. Friends and family should never know about your adsense websites or blogs. If any friend get’s your adsense links, he may click your ads to help you, and you can get banned. Moreover if your friend turns enemy then you will sure have problems.

3) Don’t make enemies online . Avoid enemies on Internet, as they might give your ads a 20 click and you can get banned instantly.

4) Do not EVER click on your own ads . I don’t think I need to tell you, still am saying because many of you think that clicking once doesn’t hurt, but am telling you one click is enough for your adsense to say goodbye.

5) Don't try to cheat Google’s crawlers, it knows everything. If you play honestly then it will help you more than anyone else.

6) Try to make content, rather than optimize for keywords as made for adsense websites are not tolerated by google any more.

7) Don’t buy duplicate content, or the adsense templates, these same templates are used by so many people, google may ban you for duplicate content.

8) Don’t edit your ads, you already get a lot of opportunities to get a desired ad format and color, there is absolutely no reason to edit your ads once you get it.

9) Don’t put your ads in pages with less content. Also mp3 and video download sites are a violation of the TOS so avoid those as well.

10) No porn and adult content pages allowed, so stay away from those pages.

Make websites and blogs to improve the Internet, add resource and knowledge in text, so that Internet becomes a better place and not full of junks. Don’t create pages simply to make money. Ask yourself, if there is no Adsense, will you still be making these websites. Your primary reason to make websites should not be to make money from adsense. Rather Adsense should be treated as an optional feature, that makes your website better.

How To Pull Better Quality Traffic From Your Articles

If you're not promoting your website with articles yet, get started. Submitting articles to article directories is one of the best ways to:

1. Establish yourself as an expert in your field.

2. Get one-way links to your website which will help you with your search engine position.

3. Bring you traffic from people reading your article.

With all the talk about links and pagerank going around lately, number 3 on the list gets missed by most article authors. A lot of authors forget how this whole article thing became popular in the first place. People are on the internet to find information. And right or wrong, they expect to get it for free. They arent online looking for you or your latest business. Give them what they want. Give them an informative, well researched article about a topic they're interested in and they'll read every word of it.

If your article is good enough they may even click on the link in your resource box to read more from you. Everyone is in such a big hurry to pump out as many articles they can to boost their search engine ranking that they forget that they can actually get the best quality traffic from the article itself.

Who do you think is more likely to buy from you? Someone who found you on a search engine or someone who read your article and liked it so much that they actually took the time to click on your resource box link.

You provided the reader with something they needed. You gave them valuable information they needed on a topic important to them. What's more, you gave it to them for free. Talk about great pre-selling. This is going to be the best pre-qualified visitor you can get. Don't forget, you got the click for free too. This is better traffic then you can get from the big pay-per click search engines.

OK. You've written your well researched article with an enticing resource box. Now what. Are you going to just submit your article to the three biggest article directories or are you going to take the time to submit to the small directories too? A lot of people make the mistake of just submitting to the big directories and they entirely skip the hundreds of smaller directories out their. I think that's a big mistake. If you've got a really good article, you'll want to post it at as many places as you can.

Authors see a small or new article directory and don't want to bother with it. But all directories were new at one time. Even if it's small now, if it's got a clean layout and looks decent, go ahead and submit there. If the owner of the directory is a real go-getter, he or she may build that new directory into a high ranking, big traffic site in no time. Also, it's easier for your article to get noticed if it's 1 in 1,000 compared to 1 in 150,000.

You'll especially want to submit your article to niche article directories. These types of directories get more real readers. Someone interested in gardening might go to a popular garden site that offers free gardening articles. If you write articles about gardening, then this is a great place for you to submit to. Instead of hoping some big publisher will pick up your article, you'll actually get real readers seeing your article and clicking on your resource link. What better traffic could you hope for?

The big directories might get looked at by publishers more but you're after real readers too, not just publishers. How many times has a publisher with a really huge list grabbed your article and published it in their newsletter. If they have, then congratulations. If not, then you may be leaving money on the table by not catering more to real readers instead of just to publishers.

Fast Loading Webpages

Statistics show that visitors are willing to wait for about 10 seconds for a page to load before moving on.

If your front page takes a long time to load into a browser, you may consider redesigning it to increase the number of visitors that decide to stay at your site.

Don't forget that not everyone has a cable modem, a T1, or DSL connection. The truth is that there are still a large number of surfers with modems of 56k.

There are certain things that you can do to speed up the loading time:

1.First consider taking out the embedded multimedia (background song, videos etc.) unless absolutely necessary. Yes, they might create a great effect, but if your visitors get impatient and leave, then the whole purpose is lost.

2.You can save loading time by using one or more of the images from the front page on your other pages (these will be on the browser's cache ans will load much faster).

3.If you have an image that loads slowly, you can put it on the page leading to it (at the bottom of the page) by simply adjusting the width and height to 1. For example:



This will make the image on the first page almost invisible, but it will save the image in the browser's cache.
4.Always use height and width tags on your images. This way the browser will know were everything is before the images are loaded. The users can start to read what is on your site before all images are loaded.
5.Reduce your images. Use Gif Cruncher or Jpeg optimizer.
If you don't need really sharp resolution, use GIFs since GIFs usually load faster than JPEGs.
6.If you are using tables, don't make very large ones, instead construct several smaller ones (you can always link them up if you want). This will help quite a bit. Also, don't put tables inside other tables if you can help it, because the browser will take longer to work out the spacing.
7.Remove "white space" (the spaces between your coding). You can do this manually to avoid confusion and to get the best results (there is a "HTML Page Squisher" program available, but this may cause problems with some browsers).
8.Last but not least, make sure your front page is as short as possible. A longer page will take a long time to load, even if it's all text. You can always use a link with extra info on another page.

Website Domain Names

There are over 40,000,000 domain names already registered, so you may be finding it very difficult to come up with a good domain name that you are happy with.

Here's some practical advice on finding the right domain name...

Keep It Short

No matter what you choose make sure it is short and easily recognizable. This is the name people will find you and come to know you by. Preferably you want a one word name or a description name that will stick in peoples memory. Think of all the great sites you know. Google.com Yahoo.com Amazon.com MSN.com. Short, catchy names which are easy to remember.
Try to keep it below eight characters, if possible.

A Good Domain Name

Is easy to convey and easy to remember! The most basic (yet often overlooked) web traffic building campaign should include promoting your web address through every means you already have in place for reaching your prospects and customers, so it should be easily conveyed in any format, printed or otherwise (on your stationery, in your catalog, on your product packaging, in your voice mail messages, in your signature file at the end of your email messages, etc.).

Your website domain should be easy to remember for others to spread the word about. It should not be easily misspelled or confusing - Prospective visitors won't always have your web address spelled out in front of them. They may try to visit your site from memory. If they misspell or otherwise confuse your domain name, they won't be able to access your site. They might even end up accessing a competing domain!
Simplicity is very important. Otherwise you'll lose traffic.

Avoid Trademarked Names

The reason for this is clear. The companies who own the trademark will simply call their lawyers.


Keyword Domains or Branding?
Branding

Many of the most successful sites do not use keyword domains. These online businesses have chosen to go with a completely original domain, and brand it. A few examples are Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay etc.

Keyword Domains

A keyword domain is a domain specifically chosen to take advantage of search engine traffic. Selecting a domain that matches a keyword search, the website should be able to rank higher for targeted keywords and therefore benefit from added traffic and more potential for sales.

For example, if you were a New York moving company, you might want to target the search phrase New York Moving Company by choosing the domain newyorkmovingcompany.com or new-york-moving-company.

If you have a large offline advertising budget and the budget necessary to brand your organization, a brandable domain is better choice. If, on the other hand, you're working on a shoe-string budget, choose a keyword domain and let the search engines bring the customers to you.

Master CSS the Easy Way

Learn CSS the easy way! Knowing CSS can greatly improve your efficiency and help your website tremendously.


If you’re looking for an easy and low risk way to increase your landing page conversion rates, then use the conversion rate optimization strategies outlined in this online guide.

About Conversion Rate Optimization:

Conversion Rate Optimization is the continual process of making your Web Site and landing pages generate better results from your visitor traffic. For example, more leads, opt-ins, and more sales.

Conversion Rate Optimization is also the fastest and easiest strategy to increase your sales without spending more money on increasing your traffic.

In fact, the most successful companies test everything. For example, GoToMyPC.com increased their conversion rates by 400% by testing the following…

- Headlines
- Call to Action
- Copy
- Images
- Graphics
- Button Look
- Button Text
- Button Location
- No Links
- Press Quotes
- Testimonials
- Pricing
- Flow Through Process
- And more

Optimizing Your Landing Page’s "Conversion Funnel"

If you review your web site statistics (called “log files”) you’ll notice the following 4 things are happening on your landing pages…

The largest percentage of your visitors are bailing within 0-8 seconds after briefly viewing your landing page.

The second largest percentage of visitors bail when they decide your landing page does not prove compelling.

A small percentage of visitors attempt to convert (buy or use a contact form to become a lead) but fail. Many of these people will call.

A small percentage of visitors convert.

Conversion rate optimization is the process of optimizing your landing pages to minimize your "bail out rate" and maximize your "conversion rate" (CR).

The Top 6 Landing Page Components
To Optimize for Maximizing Your Conversions

The following are the top 6 conversion components that should be tested and improved to boost your conversion rates…

Headline - Since your headline is the first line that your visitors will read, the headline of your web page offers the biggest opportunity (about 80% of the opportunity) for improvements in conversion rate. Use headlines that clearly state the biggest benefit(s) that your product offers.

Offer - Since your offer is the “call to action” that asks your visitors to act (purchase, sign up, opt-in), your offer accounts for the second the biggest opportunity for improvements in conversion rate.

Lead - The “lead” or first paragraph is the third biggest opportunity for improvements in your conversion rate. Leads must be written with strong benefits that capture your visitor’s attention and make them want to read more.

Benefits - The “benefit bullets” (bullet-point format) are the forth biggest opportunity for improvements in conversion rate. List your benefits in the order of your product’s “value hierarchy” to your target market. In other words, state your product’s strongest benefit first, and its weakest benefit last.

Images - The images you use have a big impact on your conversion rates. The best practice is to use images that clearly portray the biggest benefit your product offers your customer (rather than generic "feel good" stuff like unknown logos and clip art). Studies show that product images work best when placed to the left of your product description (or lead paragraph) since it makes it easier to read your copy from left to right. Plus, people like to reads “captions” under your images almost as much as they read your headlines. So, add powerful captions and make your images clickable to the order/sign up page.

"Look & Feel" - According to a recent study by Stanford University, 46% of Web sales are lost on web sites that lack the critical elements that build value and trust with website visitors. The number one reason the people indicated why they wouldn't buy from a web site was because it had an unprofessional "look and feel" that lacked credibility and did not "feel" trustworthy. Having a professional look, and trust building tools (such as VeriSign and BBBOnline certifications) help convert significantly more of your web site's qualified visitors into new customers.

Other Important Conversion Elements to test:

- Buttons – Button text, color, look, etc.
- Pricing
- Formatting and placement of page elements, images and copy
- Navigation links versus no navigation links
- Press Quotes
- Testimonials

Other Conversion Best Practices and Tips:

- Reduce your “bail out” rate by optimizing your web pages to download within 5 seconds on a 56k modem – Test your pages on Andy King’s "Web Page Analyzer" websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
- Add a 1-800-Number and Call to Action above the fold (top of the page)

- Add a Logo and a powerful “Value Proposition” to the top left
- Instead of letting visitors click off your landing page, put all your information on one page (This tactic alone increased the conversions of a landing page by 55%)
- Use colors that fit your target customer’s personality

Conclusion:

When you use “Conversion Rate Optimization” to test and improve your web pages and landing pages you can double your sales (possibly even quadruple) when you add up all the performance improvements. Of course it takes time and work but it's well worth the effort.

If you’re truly serious about maximizing your results, continuously test, track and improve the important elements of your web site, landing pages (and your marketing materials).