Search engine optimization should always be considered long before your website structure, colors, layout, and overall site design. But, the majority of people usually get caught up "in the moment"... thinking of riches instead of "how" they're going to attract more website visitors. This article is meant to get you back on track, and provide you with 5 winning search engine optimization tactics.
Identify Keywords
1. The single biggest mistake that most business owners make is trying to think of a "cool name" for their website, when they should have chosen a keyword-rich site name like 'prevent-corporate-bankruptcy.com' instead of SmithLawOffice.com' (as an example). Your potential customers search for keyword phrases... not business names... unless you're already a household name like Wal-Mart, eBay or Apple. Facing reality, many business owners gave up on websites ever helping their business a long time ago... usually because of a poor website name choice. And, it doesn't have to be this way.
Simply, discover what terms people are searching for. Identify the "action" keywords and phrases that people are actually using when they are searching Google, Yahoo, MSN or any of the other major search engines. I highly recommend looking for keyword phrases that incorporate the following keywords: buy, want, need, order, download, etc. I'm sure you're getting the idea now. Then, you need to purchase website names that are centered around the most popular keyword phrases. And, redirect these visitors to your current website. And, I promise that you can setup a website redirect in less than one minute... even if computers scare you. You just need to have access to your website hosting interface, with cPanel being the most popular choice.
Optimizing Your Web Page
2. After identifying a minimum of 10 keyword phrases, I recommend optimizing your current website pages' title tags, meta tags, image "alt" tags. You need to start using these keywords within your webpage content in bold text, underlined text, and as text links. Do not overuse these keywords though. These keywords should only comprise 4-6% of each page. So, if you have 500 words on a webpage, limit your keyword usage to 20-30 words. Most of the major search engines index every word of your page and compare them to your title META description and META keywords. So, you should never hide or add non-related keywords to your webpages: like Anna Kournakova, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, etc. This is a "black hat" tactic and should never be used, unless your want your website to be permanently banned by the search engine directories.
Most of the major search engines don't even consider the META keywords anymore, which is why the actual content of your webpages is becoming more and more important. Excessive repeating of keywords is considered as spamming, which will get your website penalized with a lower ranking. And, be sure mix your keywords in different combinations throughout the page and in your ALT tags, instead of using the same phrase over and over again.
Link Popularity
3. One of the most important factors to achieve a high ranking in the search engines is link popularity. The overall number of links to your web site is important, but the quality of the links are even more important. All the search engines are very fond of "on topic" links. Links from sites that contain your same keyword content and are focusing on the same topic as your site, are known as "on topic" links. Three of the best ways to get "on topic" quality backlinks are to comment on other industry-related blogs, make comments in industry-related forums, and to submit articles to article directories. Just make sure that you're adding comments or articles to high pagerank sites, avoiding low page rank sites.
Misspellings
4. Adding misspelled keywords within your META tags can also boost your website traffic, because many people are likely to misspell your keywords when browsing the search engine directories. As an example, here are several popular misspellings I found people making when they searched for a site submission service, as follows: "free search engine submision", "sumit", "subit", "search egnine submission", "submition", and "saerchengines".
Add Fresh Content
5. Adding fresh content to your website on a regular basis is another key factor that plays a critical role in your search engine rankings. Adding new content regularly gives your visitors a reason to come back. Search engine robots will also visit your website more often, once they notice that you update regularly. This is one of the main reasons why WordPress blogs are so popular right now. When visitors leave comments about blog posts you have made, the search engine bots see this as new content. And, it really helps your site rankings when a visitor makes a comment with a permalink back to their high pagerank site. This helps website owners save time, by allowing website visitors to create content for them.
Don't Kill the Search Engine Crawlers
Avoid using flash intro pages where it says "Click Here to Enter Site", because the search engines have a very difficult time indexing (seeing) anything beyond the intro page... unless you've submitted every webpage of your site to the search engine directories manually, which is very time consuming. Even if you use the alt attribute to specify alternate text for flash images, that text will not be anywhere near as important as real text on a main index page.
Provide Relevant Title Tags
7. Making your page titles simple, descriptive, relevant and "keyword rich" makes it easier for search engines to know what each page is about. Keyword rich titles help the search engine directories provide consumers with more relevant search results, helping them determine whether your website contains what they are trying to find. The title description is the most important element of your website design, after you have chosen your website domain name.
11 Feb 2009
4 Ways To Rev Up A Stalled Home-based Business
If you are in the same place as I was a year ago in your home-based business, you're on the verge of quitting even though you love the product or service you represent. You've spent many years trying all the traditional methods that have come along, and you have nothing to show for it but a long list of people who have signed up and quit. You have spent countless hours at training seminars, putting everything you learn into action with no results.
The good news is that you don't have to quit your business that you've invested so much time, effort and money into. The bad news, and it's really not bad news at all, is that you will need to make some changes in order for it to happen. The reason it's not bad news is because it won't cost you anything. In fact, you'll probably save money and have more free time to enjoy life outside of your home office.
Nothing happened for me until I made changes in what I was allowing myself to be taught. I spent 10 years listening to people train me how to "distribute" my product to the masses. I didn't have much success, but I kept my blinders on because that's what I was told to do. I could see how everything would work out on paper, but I couldn't make the big money like the trainers I was listening to. What I finally realized was that they were training for the benefit of the company, and not for me.
Most network marketing companies focus on techniques that boost their overall sales rather than those that help their distributors build their own businesses. Do you really think that talking to everyone you meet is the best way to get lots of people interested in what you have to offer? Sounds like it would work until you really think about it. Although everyone can benefit from your product or service, not every wants it.
The first way to rev up a stalled business is to seek proper marketing education. After all, it's called Network Marketing, not Network Distributing. Marketing is finding a demand and filling it with supply. The best way to do this is to practice the techniques that get people calling you instead of you going out and trying to find them. Proper marketing education will show you how to do this, and for pennies on the dollar.
The second way to rev up your stalled business is to become a leader. Stop listening to everyone telling you to follow the latest fads that may or may not be working for people on the other side of the country. Stop signing up for expensive online business systems and website programs just to be a part of a community that shares the same goals that you have. If something isn't working, make it happen on your own terms.
One of the best ways to become a leader is to stop doing three-way calls with your upline. When you call your friends and family so that your upline can tell you what a great business you have, you are only positioning your upline as the leader. You are helping him or her build their business, but you are doing nothing for yours. Being a leader means doing it yourself. If you aren't ready for it, do what it takes to get ready.
The third way to rev up your stalled business is to never look back. What this means is that when you call a prospect on the telephone, you have one and only one chance to close the deal. If they need time to think after that, let them call you back. Never ever call someone back because it makes you look desperate for their business. When that happens, you'll lose credibility.
The best prospects are those who make some sort of effort to get in touch with you. The more hoops they are willing to jump through, the more serious they are to join your business or try your product or service. This was a big mistake I used to make all the time. I was so eager to grow a business that I would hound everyone who had the slightest interest in what I had to offer. As a result, I spent ten years attracting no more than 2 or 3 people a month.
The fourth change you need to make to rev up your stalled business is to stop leading with money. This means always lead with our product or service to attract the best quality prospects for building a business. What happens when people sign up for a home-based business with the sole purpose of making money? They wind up quitting after not having made a profit after the first few months.
It takes time to build a huge organization from your home. Those who are customers first and become grounded on the products or services will stick it out and see things through. They understand it's about helping people, not making money. Yes, you want to manke money, but when that's the focus, very little happens.
You don't have to quit your business or change companies if your home-based business isn't going as well as you planned. Making these few simple changes can get you moving in the right direction. There is a 95% drop-out rate in network marketing because most people are unwilling to change. Don't accept that as your destiny. Be a leader and join the remaining 5% who succeed.
The good news is that you don't have to quit your business that you've invested so much time, effort and money into. The bad news, and it's really not bad news at all, is that you will need to make some changes in order for it to happen. The reason it's not bad news is because it won't cost you anything. In fact, you'll probably save money and have more free time to enjoy life outside of your home office.
Nothing happened for me until I made changes in what I was allowing myself to be taught. I spent 10 years listening to people train me how to "distribute" my product to the masses. I didn't have much success, but I kept my blinders on because that's what I was told to do. I could see how everything would work out on paper, but I couldn't make the big money like the trainers I was listening to. What I finally realized was that they were training for the benefit of the company, and not for me.
Most network marketing companies focus on techniques that boost their overall sales rather than those that help their distributors build their own businesses. Do you really think that talking to everyone you meet is the best way to get lots of people interested in what you have to offer? Sounds like it would work until you really think about it. Although everyone can benefit from your product or service, not every wants it.
The first way to rev up a stalled business is to seek proper marketing education. After all, it's called Network Marketing, not Network Distributing. Marketing is finding a demand and filling it with supply. The best way to do this is to practice the techniques that get people calling you instead of you going out and trying to find them. Proper marketing education will show you how to do this, and for pennies on the dollar.
The second way to rev up your stalled business is to become a leader. Stop listening to everyone telling you to follow the latest fads that may or may not be working for people on the other side of the country. Stop signing up for expensive online business systems and website programs just to be a part of a community that shares the same goals that you have. If something isn't working, make it happen on your own terms.
One of the best ways to become a leader is to stop doing three-way calls with your upline. When you call your friends and family so that your upline can tell you what a great business you have, you are only positioning your upline as the leader. You are helping him or her build their business, but you are doing nothing for yours. Being a leader means doing it yourself. If you aren't ready for it, do what it takes to get ready.
The third way to rev up your stalled business is to never look back. What this means is that when you call a prospect on the telephone, you have one and only one chance to close the deal. If they need time to think after that, let them call you back. Never ever call someone back because it makes you look desperate for their business. When that happens, you'll lose credibility.
The best prospects are those who make some sort of effort to get in touch with you. The more hoops they are willing to jump through, the more serious they are to join your business or try your product or service. This was a big mistake I used to make all the time. I was so eager to grow a business that I would hound everyone who had the slightest interest in what I had to offer. As a result, I spent ten years attracting no more than 2 or 3 people a month.
The fourth change you need to make to rev up your stalled business is to stop leading with money. This means always lead with our product or service to attract the best quality prospects for building a business. What happens when people sign up for a home-based business with the sole purpose of making money? They wind up quitting after not having made a profit after the first few months.
It takes time to build a huge organization from your home. Those who are customers first and become grounded on the products or services will stick it out and see things through. They understand it's about helping people, not making money. Yes, you want to manke money, but when that's the focus, very little happens.
You don't have to quit your business or change companies if your home-based business isn't going as well as you planned. Making these few simple changes can get you moving in the right direction. There is a 95% drop-out rate in network marketing because most people are unwilling to change. Don't accept that as your destiny. Be a leader and join the remaining 5% who succeed.
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