SEO: Keyword Research and Analysis - The Art of Internet Marketing

Do you know what your target audience wants and how they are looking online? As an Internet Marketing Consultant I am often surprised that many website owners don’t know who their market is, and how to target them with web copy and SEO.

Keywords are the words that web surfers enter in search engines to find websites about their search terms. If you want to get in front of your potential audience, it’s important your website has good search engine rankings for your keywords that are related to the theme of your website.

Knowing what your target audience wants and how they are looking online is crucial to your online success. Optimizing your web pages for keywords that nobody uses in the search engines is useless. In addition, in order to get targeted visitors, the keywords must not be too broad or too general. Your copy and metatags should also support the keyword phrases your market uses and entice them with copy that meets their needs and compels them to action.

The First Step to Internet Marketing - The Right Keywords for Your Website

The first step in successful SEO copywriting is choosing the right keywords to make them very specific to your market. You can survey your target market for their keyword usage or use more thorough keyword research tools. When conducting the keyword research and analysis:

1) use keyword phrases containing two to four words
2) be specific - geographically, topically, or by product
3) only use the keywords that are important to your web business
4) avoid very competitive keywords or general keyword phrases

Use focused and targeted keyword phrases that are common enough so the web searcher will use them, but selective enough that they don’t return millions of matches. Most web surfers use a two to four word phrase when they search online, so phrasing is very important. For example, if you are offering a service like dog training or Internet Marketing, you wouldn’t target the key phrase “dog training” or “SEO”, but something more specific like “Chicago dog trainer” or “Vancouver Search Engine Optimization”. Very specific keywords generate highly qualified, targeted traffic that increases your sales opportunities.

The Wrong Keywords for Your Website

Single words cannot promote ranking or sell effectively, for example you wouldn’t want to target “dog” as a dog trainer in Chicago. Avoid the most popular keyword phrases or general keyword phrases because you’ll be competing with millions of other web pages for a search engine ranking.

It’s unrealistic to think that a new web site could rank number one on a popular phrase like “Marketing”. You are better to target “Internet marketing strategies” or even better, “Internet Marketing Strategies Vancouver”. More established companies who have been on the Internet for several years will have the advantage of link popularity and a high Pagerank and therefore better rankings in the search results for these broader or general keyword phrases.

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SEO: Keyword Research and Analysis - The Art of Internet Marketing

5 Quick Money-Earning Chitika RPU Facts

Related Product Unit (RPU) is now open to all Chitika users.. The RPU first launched exclusively to select publishers for testing, during which time we received tons of great feedback on how effective this unit is for publishers. Read more to find out 5 Quick Money-Earning RPU Facts..

5 QUICK MONEY-EARNING RPU FACTS:
1. The RPU is completely non-contextual and can be customized to match the EXACT look and feel of your site by modifying the RPU CSS!

2. Ever wonder why there’s a “What’s this?” link next to your RPU? That little link earns you referral revenue for 15 months!

3. The RPU is PRODUCT-centric not DEAL-centric. So when you’re blogging about a specific product, your visitors will see deals similar to YOUR product - not just other deals.

4. Have you ever been able to customize the title of your ad unit? RPU lets you name your unit! EXAMPLE CODE: ch_att = “Popular Related GPS”;

5. WHERE IT MAKES SENSE MAKES MONEY
The RPU was specially designed to be placed right at the end of your blog post or story. This works perfectly in sync with a review of a product because once a visitor is done reviewing a product the RPU gives them the information to take their interest to the next level: purchasing options.

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Chitika Related Product Unit (RPU)

Amazing 5 Steps to High-Value Web Content

1. Choose the right author.
2. Choose the right topic.
3. Address all sides of the topic.
4. Add supporting graphics, pictures, etc.
5. Link to related resources, both on your site and elsewhere.

Let's look at each of these steps in greater detail.

1. Choose the Right Author

I once worked for a company who let their web programmers write the instructions for their online ordering process. Big mistake. If their audience were programmers as well, this might be okay. But most of their customers had limited technical skills. So when these people encountered online instructions such as "Validate parameters before advancing" ... the customers would often become dead in the water.

This is a prime example of choosing the wrong author for web writing. Sure, the programmers' input is important. After all, they built the thing. But they should not be the voice of customer guidance. A skilled web writer (someone with usability experience) would have "translated" these instructions to say something like "Please fill in all required information before moving to the next screen."

Here's the key to this. The best author for your small business website content is not always the person who knows the most about the product or service from a technical standpoint. Often, it's best to have an in-house writer who plays the go-between role of "consumer advocate," getting the information from one group and translating it for another group.

2. Choose the Right Topic

If your small business only offers one product or service, then that will likely be the topic of your web content. In this case, I would focus on choosing the right angle as well. Don't tell people what you want them to know -- this is an outdated way of thinking about public information, especially when it comes to small business website content. Instead, find out what people want to know about the types of products you offer, and use your web content to address those questions or concerns.

If you are writing web content for a company that has many products or services, you will have to spend more time choosing topics first and choosing your angle second. In this case, it becomes more about topic organization than anything. Large websites with many topics are ideally suited for a category and sub-category system: These are our products >> And this is product 'A' >> And this is a web page that explains product 'A' in detail.

3. Address All Sides of the Topic

Whether you're writing about one of your products, or you're creating a tutorial of some kind, you need to cover all the angles. There's nothing worse than website content that leaves the job only half-done, telling you why a certain thing is important but not pursuing that lead.

When you are close to a certain topic -- as is the case with people who create a product or service -- it's easy to assume everyone else understands it as well as you do. But the opposite is usually true, so you need to explain all sides of a topic when you write content for your small business website.

Want to keep your pages relatively short for easy reading? You can do that while still offering complete information. That's what hyperlinks are for!


4. Link to Related Resources

Here's the key to developing great content for your small business website. Try to create authority documents that others in your field would link to and recommend to others. One of the key criteria for a resource document is that it links to plenty of supporting information, both on the same website and elsewhere on the web.

In addition to being good for your readers, this kind of useful content will make other webmasters more inclined to link to your website. This adds to your link "popularity" and can further improve the search engine ranking of your small business website.

When writing a particular web page, try to think of it as "the ultimate guide to [blank]." This is the first step to creating the kind of authority documents that eventually dominate the search engines and drive endless web traffic for the authors. But it's rarely possible to create an "ultimate guide" to anything in just one page, so be liberal about linking to other sources on your own website and elsewhere (as long as their not direct competitors).

5. Add Supporting Graphics, Pictures, Etc.

Reading online can be hard on the eyeballs. You can make the reader's job easier in two ways. First, you can format your content appropriately for web reading (short paragraphs, narrow text columns, lots of bullet points, headers, sub-headers, etc.). Secondly, you can add supporting images and helpful graphics.

Well-placed graphics can improve website content in a number of ways. Images are more enticing than text upon first glance, so they can help attract and retain readers. They also help you clarify your message with visual reinforcement.

Conclusion: I have a motto I use regarding website content. "If it's not worth putting online, don't put it online." This is my reminder to myself that I need to use the techniques outlined above to create superior website content. Because that's the kind of content that leads to online success. Apply these lessons to your small business website and watch your own success increase!

About the Author: Brandon Cornett operates an web marketing firm in Austin, Texas and is a web writer at large for dozens of websites and blogs. Learn more by visiting http://www.austinseoguy.com.

Using Offline Advertising in Internet Marketing

Knowing how to use offline advertising in internet marketing can give you a significant advantage over your competitors, since many do not use offline methods to advertise their products. Offline advertising is particularly relevant if you are selling a product, or offering a service, that attract customers locally. For example, you could offer a fitness aid at your local leisure center. Many leisure or fitness centers will allow you to put a free poster offering your product, but even if they charge you for it the price is usually small. Perhaps you have a golf training aid that you can advertise at your local golf club.

Local classified ads are also a good means of getting your product some local publicity. The classified ads pages or even adverts placed on selected pages of your local press, frequently provide you with local orders. The beauty of these is that they are very easy to follow up, either with back-end products or new ones. You need not even restrict yourself to the local press. How often have you seen an internet marketing advert on the national press? They are not uncommon, and although expensive, they must produce a good return.

If you have a niche website, it could be worth your while browsing round your local newsagent and checking out the magazines on display. You know the kind - all these racks upon racks of magazines on every topic you can think of. Have a word with the newsvendor and find out some of the more popular magazines that cover your niche. These could be good publications for placing your adverts, especially if they are not too expensive and they have a good circulation.

Poster campaigns can also work well. You can advertise with posters in many shopping malls, and some stores also offer you the opportunity place an A5 poster for only pennies a week. Have your own business cards printed with your internet business contact details, such as website address and email address in addition to your phone number. Put your website address on everything, and have a signature that use on all correspondence. Not just emails and forum postings, but also offline correspondence such as letters, invoices, receipts and anything else you send to other people.

Another form of offline marketing that most people have never heard of, let alone use, is buzz advertising. This type of advertising has been growing in popularity recently, especially by offline businesses. It is used extensively by some auto companies and by cosmetics companies. Buzz advertising involves getting a verbal buzz going about your website or product. Some companies pay people specifically to verbally promote their products by approaching strangers, striking up conversations and bringing up the product in the conversation.

“Say, have you heard about the latest perfume from —-!” While not yet common it is getting more popular. Of course, the buzz need not be started off by someone you have employed to do it, but you can do it yourself. You can get your family and relatives involved as well. Before you know it, everybody might be talking about your product or your great new website. That’s how YouTube and MySpace got so popular.

If you have a van or pick-up get your business name and website address painted on the site. It’s easier to get a buzz going if people see your website in their face all the time, on vehicles, on posters, in newspapers and magazines, and even chalked on walls! Well, perhaps not the last one, but that would sure get people noticing your website! Do you get the idea? Get your website name known in every way that you can.

How about a local radio slot, with you explaining the virtues and benefits of your product, service or website? Stress the benefits, and you need not restrict it to local radio. Try for a national radio slot or even TV if your business is sizeable enough. There are no restrictions to the advertising methods you can use. Hire a loudspeaker and shout it from the rooftops!

Online advertising methods are very effective in internet marketing, since they can be visible to people all round the world, but if you know how to use offline advertising it can also work very nicely for you, and bring you a lot of business you would not otherwise have.

About the Author: Andre Sanchez - How to Use Offline Advertising in Internet Marketing was originally published at http://www.affiliatemarketinglife.com.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Web Traffic, Earn Money Online, Adsense, Adwords, Money, Offline Advertising, How To, Andre Sanhez

10 Tips To Increase Sales & Site Traffic By Giving Away Free Software

10 tips to increase sales and site traffic by Giving Away Free Software

1. Gain free advertising by submitting your software to freebie and freeware/shareware web sites. This will increase the number of visitors to your web site.

2. If you created the free software yourself, you will become known as an expert. This will gain people’s trust and they will buy your main product faster.

3. Offer your software as an extra free bonus to the people that buy one of your main products. People buy products quicker with free bonuses included.

4. Publish your free software on disk or CD-Rom then include it with your direct mail packages. This can increase the amount of orders you’ll receive.

5. Build your opt-in e-mail list fast by asking your visitors to give you their contact information before they can download your software.

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10 Tips To Increase Sales & Traffic By Giving Away Free Software

Tags: Tips, SEO, Freebies, Free Software, Adsense, Adwords, Web Traffic, Internet Marketing, 10 tips, Methodology, Profit, Web Marketing

How To Get Improved Search Engine Rank Using Squidoo and SEO

If you know how to use Squidoo to achieve improved search engine rank of your web pages, then you have a tool at your disposal that can be just as powerful as using traditional search engine optimization, if not more so.

One important facet of your Squidoo lens is that it could be listed on Google, or any of the other search engines, for your major keywords, and you should not lose sight of any promotional techniques that provide you with free exposure on search engines. If you Blink your Squidoo lens, you can win every way. Not just with Blinklist, but you can have it listed on just about every social networking site you can think of, Technorati and Deli.cio.us included. Also Furl, Craigslist, Stumbleupon and any of the many others out there.

For those not totally aware of what Squidoo is, I don’t intend to go into the ethos of the site right here, other than to state that it can be used as a promotional tool as well as a being a virtual website. Your lens can also be given a Google PageRank. You can use your Squidoo lens in place of a minisite in order to promote yourself and your product, and improve your search engine listing. You can use it as a showcase for your products, your blogs or even your websites, and draw traffic to it and hence to those other online ventures you are involved in.
In order to use Squidoo as a promotional tool for your main website you have to know a lot about the topic of your site. It is not a tool to use to sell an affiliate product, for example, unless you are an authority on that product. However, if you have written a book on a certain aspect of SEO, and want to advertise it, then Squidoo is ideal for that. The reason is that you can give in order to earn. Hence, Squidoo is great for me, because I can provide visitors to my lens with useful information on SEO, while at the same time advertising my SEO site that offers my product. I then get visitors and a link from Squidoo, both of which are great for my search engine rank, and also listing position.

It might be possible just to advertise the product directly, but I prefer to provide information. That allows your visitors to become confident that know what you are talking about, and are not just a ‘fly by night’ that is trying to sell a product that you know nothing about. The objective of Squidoo is to provide useful information on topics to others interested in that topic. If they go to Squidoo and click on a category, they should be able to find all the info they are looking for.

They don’t want outright adverts, but if they find that you are providing good information, then they might want to visit your website. You give them the link to do so, and then they get more information. Part of that might be the offer to purchase your product that will possibly solve their problem. However, neither you nor they know that it will, so you provide them with a guarantee that if it doesn’t work for them, they get their money back. You have used Squidoo to persuade them that you know what you are talking about, that led them to your site and more information, and then to your product. They buy it, try it, and if it works fine. If not, they get refunded. In my book that is the proper way to conduct business, and you can use Squidoo to help you with that.
You can also optimize your lens for maximum search engine listing position, since your Squidoo lens should be based upon a single keyword or keyphrase to enable you to get a good listing. You can SEO a lens just as you can do a web page, and with the same effect. Free organic traffic from your listing position.
To achieve all that, sign up for Squidoo, follow their instructions and get your first lens up and running, and then use it to promote your regular website and improve its ranking. You must also make sure that your customers have an out if it doesn’t work for them. Squidoo provide lots of help in designing your first lens, but if you already have website then you should find it easy. Optimize your lens for the search engines and you are all set.
By combining your web page, lens and blog optimization, and cross-promoting each in an intelligent way, it is difficult to see how you could fail to get high search engine listings and improved search engine rank using Squidoo and SEO.

About The Author
If you need more information on how to use Squidoo for improved search engine rank, here is a lens that does what I am suggesting you do. Check it out, and then sign up for Squidoo yourself from the same page. Copy what I do and you can hardly fail. The free info on the page is important, especially Improved Search Engine Rank dot com and might be all that you are looking for.

Technorati Tags: SEO, Squidoo, Internet Marketing, Web Traffic, Search Engine Rank, Improved Search Engine Rank, Search Engine Optimization, Tips

A Beginner’s Guide to Pay Per Click Marketing By Kalena Jordan

Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine marketing refers to a specific type of advertising where you pay a search engine every time a potential customer clicks on your ad. These ads appear on search engine results pages and sometimes on sites within a search engine’s network of associates.

How do Pay Per Click Ads Work?

If you look at a search engine results page (SERP) carefully, you can generally distinguish between search results that are regular algorithmic or “organic” search listings and PPC search results which are actually paid advertisements. The latter are generally listed under the headings “sponsored results” or “featured listings” and consist of specially designed text, image or video ads that are triggered to display when your target keywords are used in a search query. The PPC ads generally appear on the right hand side and/or at the top of the search results pages.
To appear in the PPC results, advertisers sign up for the PPC program of their choice and create short text ads, image ads or videos describing the product or service available on their site in a way that will best entice searchers to visit it. During the program setup, an advertiser will decide which trigger keywords/phrases they wish to bid on and how much they are willing to pay when a visitor clicks on their ad. Generally, the higher the bid, the more likely their ad will show above their competitor’s.

The Origins of Pay Per Click Marketing

The PPC industry was pioneered by GoTo.com (later re-branded as Overture before it was purchased by Yahoo! in July 2003). Despite their enormous success, GoTo’s PPC model was met with a lot of skepticism in the industry following their IPO in 1999. Their eventual purchase by Yahoo put to rest any doubts that pay per click advertising was here to stay.

In October 2000, Google which was eventually to become the world’s most popular search engine, launched their own keywords advertising model (Google AdWords), blending algorithmic search results with pay per impression ads.

In 2002, in an attempt to compete more successfully with Overture, Google expanded AdWords to include the pay per click pricing model we are familiar with today. This model proved both more popular and more successful and eventually replaced the pay-per-impression model as the default system.

By 2002, GoTo (by then rebranded as Overture), had distribution deals with an impressive range of search engines including Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista, InfoSpace and a number of meta search engines including MetaCrawler and Ixquick. Overture’s powerful distribution network guaranteed advertisers placement of their ads in front of a LOT of eyeballs and it became clear that many were willing to pay big bucks for the privilege. Other major search engines also formed successful distribution partnerships with PPC providers during this time, noticeably AOL, AskJeeves and MSN with Google AdWords. The pay per click industry had officially arrived.

Scores of PPC search engines began to spring up following Overture’s lead, however the PPC industry continued to be dominated by the two big PPC players, Overture and Google AdWords, while Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Google fought it out for dominance in the general search market.

In July 2003, in a move that shocked the industry, Yahoo! purchased Overture to enable them to better compete with market leader Google. In April 2005 they rebranded the PPC engine as Yahoo! Search Marketing and in 2006 they launched a revamped version of the service, code-named Panama.

Meanwhile, in October 2005, Microsoft quietly launched their own PPC service called MSN adCenter. An official launch in the US, together with a name change to Microsoft AdCenter occurred in May 2006. In May 2007, Microsoft revamped AdCenter with new features and rolled it out to advertisers worldwide.

Currently, Yahoo and Google continue to dominate the PPC landscape, although Microsoft AdCenter is beginning to make an impact. Second tier PPC engines such as MIVA (formerly Espotting and FindWhat) and Kanoodle are fast catching up to the majors.

There are now hundreds of PPC search engines worldwide, servicing global, regional and niche markets, but only a few that have achieved a significant market share of advertising revenue. A summary of the majors are listed below.

Yahoo! Sponsored Search

Yahoo! Sponsored Search is the current name for what was originally called Overture Precision Match. Yahoo! Sponsored Search prominently displays your site in search results on some of the top U.S. search properties that Yahoo! collaborates with. With Sponsored Search, you set the price you’re willing to pay for each customer who clicks on your listing.

Your ads appear at the top, bottom or right hand side of Yahoo search results pages under the heading “Sponsor Results”. Your ads are triggered on search result pages when searchers enter the keyword combinations that you’ve bid on. Your ads can be targeted by language and country.

If you create a keyword campaign and you use the ContentMatch option, your bid also buys you top listings on Yahoo’s allied sites AltaVista, InfoSpace, eBay, CitySearch, AllTheWeb and a range of news and content portals, such as USAToday, National Geographic, iVillage and NBC.

Google AdWords

Google AdWords gives web site owners the ability to promote their site when particular keyword or phrase searches are conducted at Google and associate sites. Your ads appear at the top or on the right side of search results pages in a “call out” box under the heading “Sponsored Links”. Your AdWords text, image or video ads appear on search result pages for the keywords you buy, and can be targeted by language and country.

With Google AdWords cost-per-click (CPC) pricing, you pay only when a customer clicks on your ad, regardless of how many times it’s shown. Google adjusts your bids automatically to keep you ahead of your competition at the lowest possible price. Google AdWords results appear on Google search results pages, Google’s distribution sites, Google Gmail, and numerous content sites which are syndicated through the Google AdSense program.

Microsoft AdCenter

Microsoft adCenter is the newest kid on the Pay Per Click block. It includes the ability to target your ads to MSN Live Search users who match your target regional and demographic criteria.

Microsoft adCenter allows you to submit base bids for keywords or phrases you associate with your ads. This base bid is the maximum amount you are willing to pay if any Live Search user searches for one of your keywords and clicks your ad. You can also increase your bid in order to reach specific audience targets, which help increase the chance your ad will appear for a user who fits your buyer profile.

Targeted bidding in the Campaigns tab allows you to add amounts to your base bid to increase the possibility that your ad will show to searchers who fit your optimum buyer profile. You can use your bid amounts to influence your ad’s position in the Live Search results. In general, the more you bid, the higher the position your ad will have.

You can use Microsoft’s Intelligent Targeting feature to adjust your ads to match these variables:

* Geographical location
* Age and gender
* Day of the week
* Time of day (morning, afternoon, or night)

Interestingly, Microsoft pitches the ability to “build brand awareness” with their PPC program, due to the continued exposure of your ad and brand to a large market, regardless of whether that ad attracts clicks. This is an important feature of all major PPC programs but one that is rarely promoted by Google or Yahoo!

Perhaps brand-building is adCenter’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP) because Microsoft claim to reach more potential eyeballs than their competitors: over 99 million people per month have access to their Live Search tool across MSN and Windows Live.

The Advantages of Pay Per Click Advertising

The growth of the search industry worldwide has created a huge market for paid search advertising and most search engines and directories now have some type of Pay For Performance or Pay Per Click (PPC) element to them.

Pay Per Click advertising:

* Enables webmasters to target geographical and niche markets more precisely via specific search queries.
* Enables webmasters to have their page URL displayed at the top of the search engine results pages without having to figure out complex search engine algorithms or pay an SEO expert to tweak their site for higher rankings.
* Enables webmasters to receive new traffic instantly.
* Enables a website or offline store to be found by search engine users even if no site exists or the site is not search engine compatible.
* Enables small businesses to operate globally and compete on an equal footing with much larger competitors.
* Enables instant sales and more measurable ROI via conversion tracking.
* Enables more precise visitor pathways to be plotted (e.g. by leading visitors to specific landing pages).
* Enables campaigns to be switched on and off on-demand to meet specific needs, search trends or specific events (e.g. Christmas sale)

About The Author
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

Technorati Tags: SEO, PPC, Pay Per Click Marketing, Internet Marketing, Web Traffic, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Adwords, Adsense, Overture, Goto.com, search engine results page, SERP

Web Traffic : 20 Simple Ways To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Site

Starting on an Internet Marketing campaign doesn’t have to be hard, tricky, or complicated. Learn these few simple ways how you can easily implement to get tons of traffic to your site right now!

1) Write articles: believe it or not this is an incredible tool for driving traffic. Well-written, relevant articles can net quite a bit of activity to your web site. Don’t forget to add your URL in your byline. Articles should be 500 to 2,000 words in length. You can send articles to sites like: Article City, GoArticles, Submit Your Articles and Ezine Articles.

2) Social bookmark *everything* - and I do mean everything - you can bookmark each page of your site and each blog entry you post. While this might seem tedious, it’s worth it. You’ll see a strong increase in traffic if you social bookmark each page on your site and each of your blog entries.

3) List yourself in the best directories – you’ll have to pay for this but since most people don’t do this (since everyone’s looking for a freebie) you could really enhance your traffic by getting a listing: dir dot yahoo dot com, business dot org, botw dot org.

4) Get yourself listed at: DMOZ dot org – it’s not easy to get listed there, but worth the effort.

5) Review: if you can review hot new products or books within your market, head on over to Amazon and start positioning yourself as an expert. In order to do this effectively you’ll want to create an Amazon profile and make sure and sign each review with a reference to your URL (your web site). You can also go to Epinions and Revoo to review products as well.

6) Offer a freebie on Craig’s List: you’ll be amazed at how much traffic you get from a single Craig’s List ad. The key here is to send people to a page on your site and make sure they have to sign up for something (like your email newsletter) before they can grab their freebie. That way you’re not just getting traffic, you’re also building your list.

7) Create a “recommended by” list on your Delicious page – you can do this by logging on and creating an account and there and then tagging articles, blogs and other content you think is important to your readership. Then offer this page as a resource site. You can add a link to this page in your email signature line or on your web site.

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20 Simple Ways To Get Massive Traffic To Your Web Site

Tags: SEO, Massive Traffic, Internet Marketing, Web Traffic, Web Site, Adsense, Adwords, Google, Marketing, Ezine, Article