One Way Links Lead to Website Traffic

The name of the game on the internet is traffic and every webmaster realizes this. It does not matter what the niche of your site, if you do not have traffic they will never see what you have to offer them. If your site is an online business the simple reality is that you must get traffic to be successful.

Where can this traffic come from?

Email marketing is one source. You can generate a certain amount of traffic to your website by offering opt-in email newsletters and e-zines. Sending newsletters to your contacts will help keep your website in their mind and keep them returning.

Search engines are a major player in internet traffic and sent around 60% of overall traffic to those websites that are successful. The best thing about this method is that it is free and lasts, but you need to be indexed highly for relevant search terms by the search engine to get any traffic.

Links from other websites to yours can be a major contributor for traffic to your website. Traffic generated this way is typically more targeted to your niche and best of all it helps your site get indexed higher in search engine results to drive traffic in that way also.

The focus of the rest of this article will be on strategies for link building. How do you get those one way links to help you get indexed higher in the search engines?

The first and most effective way of building links is by submitting your site for review in the quality directories such as Yahoo!, Business.com and the Authority Directory. Submitting to quality web directories does not take that much time and will get you a high quality link to your website. You should be aware that there are many directories on the internet and they are not equal. A link from a quality directory can be the equivalent of links from hundreds others.

Another method of link generation is by writing articles that are rich in keywords related to you niche and them submit those to various article directories. Choose those articles directories of quality just like a web directory and Ezines is one of the best know. When you use this method make sure that you write a nice bio for the resource box that contains a link to your website with good keyword text.

Participation in online forums that relate to your niche is another good way to gain links that can bring traffic to your website. Make sure that you use the signature option with the forum to place a link back to your website. By being professional and making relevant and intelligent comments forums can be a powerful tool for your website. Do not make comments just for the sake of spamming them with your links. Comments in forums need to be relevant to the topic and offer something to the other readers. The same rules apply for blog post comments.

Always keep reading and searching out additional information as the internet can change quickly. Links will always be a stable source of gaining attention and traffic for your website.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/one-way-links-lead-to-website-traffic-315455.html

About the Author:
Increase your Websites online presence today by getting listed on The Authority Business Directory. Plus, don't forget to submit link for inclusion while you are visiting.

Web 2.0, Internet Marketing, The Easiest Way To Generate Massive Exposure

Many people feel that they are running in circles when trying to improve the traffic to their site. The following article looks at the many marketing opportunities that exist in today's Web 2.0 world.

If you’ve ever been involved in a small business, or possibly even a home-based business then you’ve most likely hit the brick wall, just as many people do. No, I’m not talking about start up capital, or operating expenses, because starting a home business is actually one of the most affordable ways for the average person to break into the world of business, and break out of the world of 9 to 5 slavery.

The brick wall that I’m referring to is that of creating exposure for your products and services, and generating traffic for your web sites, presentations, and business briefings. In fact, one can very quickly find themselves pulling out their hair with shear frustration and confusion.

What once was a world of duplication, manipulation, and old school marketing, has in a matter of a few short years been swept aside by those on the cutting edge of the Internet landscape. The cutting edge of what has become the world of web 2.0. Unfortunately, despite the trends, most people really do not know what web 2.0 really is.

Of course, it’s cutting edge, it’s now, it’s happening, but are you using it?

Don’t get me wrong, web 2.0 Internet Marketing is not rocket science, but you do need to be armed with the basics. Just putting a few video clips on your site, or tossing up an audio file or two that people can access or download does not make your site a web 2.0 experience. In fact this has been done for years, but what does make it web 2.0?

Here are a few things to consider before jumping head long into the world of web 2.0 Internet Marketing, and possibly a few suggestions that may make your transition into this world a bit easier.

Architecture of Participation

The first element of a well-designed web 2.0 experience is something called the Architecture of Participation. You might also hear things like RIA (Rich Internet Applications), or even SOA (Service Oriented Applications).

Despite the use of fancy buzzwords, this simply refers to the user experience. Is the site pleasing to the eye, easy to use, and most importantly does the site make it possible for visitors to participate in the content of the web site?

This could best be demonstrated by taking a look at sites such as YouTube.com, EzineArticles.com, as well as social networking sites like MySpace.com. Each of these examples has a very well planned Architecture of Participation.

Mash Ups & Integration

The next element of a true web 2.0 experience is often called the mash up, or content integration. This is actually quite simple. Again, going back to sites like MySpace.com, you’ll see that participants can implement many different sources of web content. You’ll not only see video and audio, but you’ll also see blogs, comments, and networks of friends. Many sites will also integrate content from multiple sources or sites onto a single, new web site that generates fresh content on the fly, ready for eager site visitors.

Mashing multiple streams of content onto a new web site is where the term Mash Ups actually came from, which here again, is not rocket science when you determine what content your visitors might like to see, hear, or read. It’s simply a matter of pulling the appropriate content and mashing it up into one convenient place.

Social Networking

Finally, social networking is a big part of web 2.0. Of course, it’s deeply routed in the Architecture of Participation, and it almost always implements the mash up to create unique content, but the unique factor in social networking is that it’s designed to bring like minded people together.

Networking is the key to building successful long-term business relationships, but if you’ve ever hit your friends and family up with a business opportunity, you’ve probably discovered that they’re not always as like-minded as you might have originally hoped.

Tapping into such social networks can put you, and your business or opportunity in front of literally millions of potential prospects and future business partners, and because you are networking with like-minded people, you’re not forced to go old school when it comes to pitching your opportunity or product.

Over all, web 2.0 is a major departure in traditional marketing, and is light years beyond the days of mass mailing and classified ad submission. It is a whole new mindset in terms of building relationships, by simply rethinking the design process of your next web site, and oh yeah, the best part is that web 2.0 will cost you absolutely nothing to implement into your business.

Basically, the key to web 2.0 Internet Marketing is in the user experience. Gone are the days of sit and stare web sites. With a little creativity, and a touch of web 2.0, it’s now possible to turn a one way experience into a two way stream of communication, which is the key to any business success.

About the Author:

Troy Berlin has been actively involved in the home-based business industry for nearly 15 years and has been a stay at home dady for the past 10 years thanks to his home business. He now helps others develop their own online home business incomes so that they can enjoy more time freedom as well. Learn more about the Prosperity Cast Network, and Troy Berlin at http://www.ProsperityHomeNetwork.com

Traffic Conversions In As Little As Hours With These Revealed Secrets

The following is a great article that looks at converting your online visitors to customers. I found it very helpful and easy to understand.

This is a list of website conversion tools that I use and recommend to my clients so that they can add "bells and whistles" quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

If you're a website owner who's unhappy with the business your Internet presence is generating, I wouldn't be surprised if you think your copy is the culprit, too. A lot of people think that if there's a problem with conversion that the sales copy must be at fault.

This is WRONG THINKING...and potentially fatal to your website's success.

The world's most brilliant sales letter for the world's most incredible product won't necessarily generate the through-the-roof results you might expect. The truth is that turning a casual site visitor into a "here's my credit card take whatever you want" buyer takes MUCH MORE than just effective copywriting.

Converting prospects into clients and customers takes more than a super headline... More than a list of "what's in it for you"... More than an ironclad guarantee and more than a page of testimonials from celebrities and authorities.

This isn't a war that will be won with words. You need more...much more.

If you think of your website as a high-powered sports car, your sales letter is the engine. But as any racer on the NASCAR circuit will tell you, without the right fuel and other essential components, an engine can't run smoothly and a car will never be first to the checkered flag.

I don't care if you have the most powerful "engine" in the world...the greatest sales letter ever written. If you're not taking advantage of technology and leveraging human psychology in your sales and marketing efforts, you're simply out of the race.

I usually wear my copywriter's "hat" when I do the rant and load you up with lots of ideas for creating great sales messages. The how's and why's...the do's and don'ts... the nuts and bolts.

But this time around, I don't want to focus on the engine. Instead, we're going to make a "pit stop" to look under the hood of "killer" websites and talk about everything that's working to power their success.

Conversion Secret #1 - Less Can Be More (Why the QUALITY of Your Traffic is More Important than the Quantity)

The number of people that visit your website is meaningless if they don't buy anything when they're there. You can have ten thousand people hitting your site a month, but if they're looking for camping equipment and you're selling baby strollers, you're not going to convert a single visitor.

And if you're paying per click, this will kill you. Your marketing dollars are going up in smoke.

On the other hand, you can have less traffic, but if they're targeted, you'll have a very high conversion rate. If your baby stroller site has a banner ad at a baby formula store, chances are the people who click through will be more likely to buy from you.

Here's something you MUST keep in mind: "more likely to buy" doesn't mean that they will buy. That's why tracking your traffic is so important. You have to know exactly where your traffic is coming from.

Are they from Per-Pay-Click? Are they from affiliates? Are they from offline marketing? What percentage is from what promotion? Unless you know the answers, you can't build on your success.

You can't improve something you can't measure." says W. Edwards Deming, a management expert.

A steady flow of QUALITY traffic and information about where it comes from will affect your conversion rate just as much as the quality of your sales message.

Conversion Secret #2 - Don't Let A Good Answer Get away (Exit Poll)

No one expects a 100% conversion rate, of course. You may dream about it, but, depending on what you're selling, if you're getting a 2-3% conversion, that's pretty damn good.

Okay, you're not converting 97% of the people that come to your site... But does that mean that their visit has to go into the "lost cause" column? No way!

If you paid to have those people visit, you can't just let them get away! You need to get some kind of return on your investment. Why not do an exit pop-up survey, asking them why they're not buying?

Want to really get a visitor's attention. Use an audio pop-up. When people leave your site you can have a pop-up with an audio portion like this:

"Wait, before you go, could you please help me out? I'm not trying to sell you anything, I just need some information. Could you tell me the single biggest reason that you're not giving us a try today? What's the ONE reason that's stopping you from purchasing (my product name)? Just fill out the box below and click on the submit button. Your opinion matters to me..."

Boom! You've just created your own "consumer feedback forum" and you haven't spent a penny on some high-priced focus groups. Once you get a bunch of responses to your exit poll, you'll be able to identify patterns in what people say. Use what you learn to make the changes that you know for certain will bump up your conversion rate.

Success and failure shouldn't be based on guesswork or assumptions. It doesn't matter what you think is the reason people aren't buying. It doesn't matter what I think is the reason people aren't buying.

The only thing that matters is what your customers think...that's the "pulse" of the marketplace and the lifeblood of your future business. And with an exit survey, your customers will tell you what you need to do in order to convince them to buy your product!

People consider me a marketing wizard because I'm so good at market research. Well, I may be a "wizard," but I'm not a genius, and I certainly didn't earn my Ph.D in marketing. That's because you don't have to be a marketing genius to get your finger on the pulse of your industry.

Here's the secret: I am not the marketing wizard. You're not the marketing wizard. Your CUSTOMER is the marketing wizard.

All you have to do to learn the "mysteries" of more sales is ASK your customers... And make sure you ask the people who decided not to be your customers, too.

Just ask and they'll tell you. Then take what you've learned, incorporate it into your sales message, and watch the "no sales" turn into "sales" so fast that you'll get a speeding ticket for all that fast-moving, fast-buying traffic!

Conversion Secret #3 - Take a Tip from the Tortoise (slow and steady wins the race)

Far too many Internet marketers try to close the sale with one step. Are you one of them?

Do you run an ad in some ezines, post a couple of Pay-Per-Click ads, then sit back, relax and wait to enjoy "the show"? Do you assume that people will notice the ad, read the ad, get excited by the ad, go to your site, read your sales pitch, pull out their credit cards and buy from you?

Do you expect to accomplish all that with ONE STEP? Give me a break. What are you thinking?

That's like you're trying to have sex on the first date.

You might get away with it. (You might get some sales and be profitable). But chances are, without a little coaxing from you at every step in the process, you'll be going home alone.

Take it slow, will ya?

Show some class. Have some manners. Get to know each other. Share some stories. Make a connection. Develop a relationship before you try to close the "deal". People buy from people they trust. So you'll make a lot more sales if you take the time to develop a solid relationship.

How do you convince website visitors that you're one of the "whit hats"? Start building that relationship. One way is by giving more than you get.

Give them a free report. Give them a free mini-course. Give them a free ebook. Give them a free chapter. (Are you getting the idea that "free" may be the most important word in relationship-building on the Internet?)

Bribe them and get them to give you their name and email so that you can follow up with them using an auto-responder. And don't forget to make it simple.

One easy-to-use option is a hover ad that drops down on your visitor's screen when they visit your site, inviting them to "opt-in" to your free offer. Why a hover ad? Testing shows hover ad gets more attention than traditional pop-ups.

A more advanced way...and to some a less "savory," but extremely effective way...to capture contact information is to make your home page an opt-in request.

Basically, a visitor can't get to the rest of your site without providing contact information. You qualify them before you let them read your sales pitch! That's pretty brilliant if you ask me!

The opt-in doesn't have to be fancy. And it definitely shouldn't be very long. Just a killer headline and some equally killer benefits. That'll do it.

Don't blow it! When you follow up with them, you don't just want to pitch them. You want to deliver value in your auto-responder messages. Educate them. Teach them something. Then just have a little plug at the end.

Remember I said that people buy from people they trust. If you're constantly selling things, then you're a salesperson...and your motives are immediately suspect.

But if you're constantly giving things away, sharing ideas, giving more than you're getting, you're a valuable resource...a good friend...a trusted adviser. (There's the secret password -- trust!)

And the beauty is...what you give away doesn't have to cost you a penny.

Let's say you're selling an ebook, you can actually take the first 3 chapters of your ebook and turn them into a series of auto-responder messages. This is a great way to give them a taste of what you're selling and to prove that you're the "real deal."

Conversion Secret #4 - Hear Ye, Hear Ye (Audio on the Internet)

When I talk about copywriting, I often talk about how important it is to engage the reader's senses. Make them see with word pictures... Make them feel with hot-button language. The more senses that are involved, the more likely it is that your prospect will be sold.

Using audio on your site is a sense-sation.

With audio, you appeal to a completely different sense than the average site. The web is full of visual appeal, but with audio, you suddenly connect with a visitors ears with a whole new component -- a verbal component.

Your spoken words will strike an emotional chord with visitors and connects on a "human" level in an otherwise electronic world.

And here's something that every website needs: excitement. Because it's rare, audio is unusual and attention-getting. It's brand new, instead of the "same old," same old."

(This won't be true forever, of course, but for now, you can take advantage of audio's scarcity.)

Don't let your fear of the unknown or a fear of failure hold you back. You don't have to be a techie to utilize and implement these technologies. If you've got the will, I'll show you the way:

Okay, now my secrets are your secrets. The same tricks and techniques that I've used to achieve astronomical traffic conversion levels are now at your disposal.

They've been tested and refined and re-tested. They've worked for me...and they've worked for my clients (who, by the way, paid me a fortune to implement them on their behalf).

I know they'll work for you. Let me know when they do. I'd like to add your success story to an upcoming issue of the Rant.

Stay Lok-ed and loaded for success.

About the Author:

Nickolie Greer

Download a Free AdTracking Guide and to learn how Adtrackz will improve your sales. Go to http://www.squidoo.com/AdTrackZ-Review/ and read my AdTrackz Review.

How To Get Traffic Without Spending A Dime

A terrific article outlining many unique ways that you can generate traffic to your website.

Starting a brick and mortar business requires an enormous capital investment. Today, online businesses are able to compete with the old school way of doing things and win. Take a quick look at newspaper circulation and free classified advertising online, and you get an idea of what I am talking about. This is because of the versatility that the Internet offers and the many ways a single individual can compete on a truly global scale with large corporations, that only recently could not even be imagined.More...

While there are ways to jumpstart your web site traffic, many sites don't have the resources required to generate web traffic instantly. Do not despair, as I will explain in this article, many ways you can generate huge amounts of traffic, and all of them are Free! All you need is the proper mind set and a the discipline to stick with your plan for at least 4 to 8 months to start seeing significant results. You also must have the ability to learn new things, as the online world is constantly evolving, you need to be inquisitive, and alert to these trends. The actual work is not hard work at all, it is easy and fun!

The truth is, that web traffic builds organically over time. By using free methods you can gradually build a huge traffic funnel directed at your website. Many article directories contain articles that offer tips and guidelines explaining free methods of traffic generation. Start looking for good free information and learn as much as you can. It will take time, to say honestly. Paid traffic and PPC advertising will by far, get better immediate results than free methods, But obviously over the lifetime of your site, the free traffic is where you will see the greatest benefit. It will take time, but with these free methods I'm about to disclose, before long you will generate a tremendous traffic flow to your website.

Search for and join online forums and online communities relevant to your business product or service. The great thing about forums and online communities is that you can easily find forums that provide community of people interested in your particular niche. You can discuss lots of things about the niche that are relevant to you business, without being overly commercial. Another great advantage is that you can learn an tremendous amount of consumer information about the business you are in, as well as about your competitors.

With online communities and forums over time you build a reputation for your company. Be confident, but not boastful, but showcase your range of expertise about the subject, with that you can build a reputation and trust with a key demographic of your business.

Make use of newsletters, and provide readers with interesting articles and advice, along with a catalog of your products. If you make it really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who signs up for your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site increasing your traffic. Some marketers say all their money is in their list. Love an respect your subscribers, and they will reward you well.

Another great idea is reciprocal linking, i.e. trading links with other sites. This is accomplished by engaging in a partnership with another webmaster. By exchanging links, both parties will benefit. Every click that goes to the partner's site could potentially click on the link of your site and visit your site as well. Be sure to target and partner only with quality sites that are relevant or in the same niche as your site. Done incorrectly, link exchanging can actually damage your site's reputation in the search engines.

Article writing is a proven method for building web site back-links and authority status, as well as significant free targeted traffic. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge to other people will reward you with new visitors, eager to learn more about your business.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. When people find interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a resource box at the bottom of each article, with a link and a brief description of your company with the article to build back links and laser targeted traffic.

Use well written, unique content for your site. Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not a requirement that a content should be done by a professional content writer. You could do your on but you have to make content for your site that is entertaining as well as informational. Copy writing is a skill that can be learned with study and practice.

Search engines are the primary means that Internet surfers use to find information by typing a keyword or phrase, which returns results relevant to their interest. Search engines in return use keyword searching to increase the relevance of their search results. With the right keywords, in well targeted context, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs.

All of these methods will drive traffic to your site for free. All it takes is a bit of effort and perseverance. Learn all you can about these methods, and start planting seeds and nurturing them, and don't give up! Before long, your Internet garden will provide you a bountiful harvest.

About the Author:

Christopher Andrew is a Internet Marketing and SEO Expert who has been doing online marketing for the last seven years. http://epicycledigital.com provides Internet marketers free and low cost MRR And PLR products, as well as support to build Internet businesses.

Build and Promote a Successful Web Site Without Spending a Dime

Build a killer Web site guaranteed to capture attention using free and low-cost tools found on the Internet--with help from this expert resource. Cheap Web Tricks! Build and Promote a Successful Web Site Without Spending a Dime will direct you to all sorts of handy programs and applications available online--including Internet access, Web site hosting, site promotion, and revenue generation. See how easy it is to create an online presence without spending a fortune!

Plan, build, and publish your own Web site for free!

Whether your goal is to publicize, sell, or share something online, you can build a terrific Web site for a fraction of what you might have expected to pay. So, pin down a purpose and delve into this cost-saving gem. Loaded with resources--available at little or no cost--Cheap Web Tricks! Build and Promote a Successful Web Site Without Spending a Dime will help you access the tools needed to design, construct, publish, and promote your own Web site. View plenty of real-world examples to help get you started, and follow step-by-step instructions for establishing a powerful Web presence virtually free.

• Learn to cost-effectively build and publish a successful Web site

• Organize your goals, determine what's feasible and well-suited to your Web site, and then devise an overall plan for design and execution

• Use HTML to execute your design

• Identify--and meet--the needs of your audience whether your goals are business or personal

• Make a profit more quickly by reducing your startup expenses

• Create and maintain a high quality Web presence

• Learn new skills and share your ideas with the world

• Promote your site through search engines, banners, and other proven performers

• Interpret traffic statistics and keep visitors coming to your Web site

• Discover and resolve compatibility and technical issues

Social Marketing and Your Business- The Basics

A great article that looks at the basics of social marketing.

Social Media – Who’s In Control?
by: Scott Lindsay

Social media allows individuals to connect by means of identifying common interests and forged cyber-based friendships. If there are negative aspects to social media they may be offset by potential marketing possibilities.

Please remember this article is intended to demonstrate the marketing potential for social media for online business owners. I understand some have concerns about social media as it relates to children, but this article remains focused exclusively on the on marketing possibilities associated with social media.

That being said, one negative related to social media for some online business owners is the addictive nature of participating in social networking. Time spent on the site corresponding with other ‘friends’ could chip away at the time you may really need for other business related activities.

If you have spent any amount of time on social media then you know it is possible to post a blog entry and be alerted to new posts to your blog whenever a new post is made. You may find yourself heading back to your social media page to read updated comments several times a day. This will probably lead to the desire to thank the individual for their comment. Of course all of this is done under the notion that you are working to market your business through social media, but the truth is there comes a point where you can spend an inordinate amount of time corresponding with people you don’t really know for one small facet of marketing potential. When you’re having fun online the balance between work and play gets a little blurry.

Another negative that may sound somewhat similar is that social media can keep you from face-to-face contacts that may benefit your business. The face-to-face contacts may be in the form of business-to-business networking or meeting affiliates, but social media can, and sometimes does, minimize time for events that are often of equal or greater importance.

One of the keys to effective online marketing is attempting to keep things balanced.

Obviously it can take some time to develop your social media page and it may be hard to fully determine what your goals are in relation to social media, but then you may want to commit to only a certain amount of time each day to the social networking and resist coming back to the page repeatedly throughout the day. You may even want to configure your email box to send all emails from the social media site to a special folder that you can easily review on a daily basis without the need to revisit your page multiple times each day. You may even want to turn the feature off that alerts you to new posts and messages if the distraction becomes too pronounced.

Remember, your social media page is there to help you market your business and connect with prospects while directing them to your primary site, but far too often individuals come to view the social media page with something akin to an addiction.

Allow social media to be useful without coming to a place where it is using you.

About the Author:

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com or BuildAGreatSite at: http://www.buildagreatsite.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business

Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Businessis a great book outlining the basics in setting up an effective social network marketing campaign for your business. These sites are a huge source of potential online traffic and cannot be ignored.

The future of marketing is a two-way street, not a one-way message.

Marketers must look to the Web for new ways to find and communicate with customers, rather than at them. From MySpace and YouTube to blogs, social media on the Internet is the most promising new way to reach customers.

Marketing to the Social Web helps marketers and their companies understand how to engage customers, build customer communities, and maximize profits in a time of marketing confusion. Author and social media guru Larry Weber describes newly available tools and platforms, and shows readers how to apply them to see immediate results and growth.

In order to use the Internet to its full marketing potential, executives must open their minds to new possibilities, embrace social change, and rethink best practices. Rather than broadcast messages to audiences, savvy marketers will participate in, organize, and encourage social networks to which people want to belong, striking up a dialog with and between customers. Networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and even Flickr are the perfect forums for this new dialog; Marketing to the Social Web shows you how to tap into it.

Today, marketing is exploding with possibilities and complexities as it reaches out into new forms, media, and models. Marketing to the Social Web presents an exceptional opportunity to use these new tools and models to reach new markets, even in today's fragmented media environment.

Search Engine Optimization (CD-ROM)

Search Engine Optimizationis a helpful CD-ROM which allows you to watch in action what is involved in optimizing your site online and achieving good placement in the top search engines.

If you're out of sight on the Web, says Search Engine Optimization specialist Richard John Jenkins, you're out of mind. Braving the wilds of search engine myths and facts, Richard offers essential tips on how to appear at the top of search results in Yahoo!, Google, and other popular search engines. From purchasing placement to optimizing keyword variations, from avoiding "black hat" SEO practices to setting up a search-friendly site, Richard covers it all. He also shares how to best submit your Web pages for indexing, how to monitor page rank, and how to build a solid base of links to your site. A must-watch video tutorial for experienced website publishers and for those just getting into the Web game.

Topics Include

* Search engine optimization (SEO) vs. search engine marketing (SEM)
* Getting to know your searchers
* Crawler-based search engines
* Keywording to rank high in searches
* Keyword combinations, variations, and stop words
* Setting up a site the wrong way: what to avoid
* Creating a search-friendly site
* Submitting websites for search engine indexing
* Building link relationships

About the Author

Richard John Jenkins, founder of Web Search Engineer, (www.WebSearchEngineer.com) is a search engine optimization and marketing specialist based in Santa Monica, California. Richard is a member of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization). He uses Bruce Clay's SEOToolSet and abides by Bruce Clay's SEO Code of Ethics for all of his SEO clients. Richard brings years of experience and a wealth of multimedia and Web publishing knowledge to his SEO/SEM company and to the training he offers. For many years he was a top multimedia trainer at the American Film Institute in Hollywood. He was also a popular staff software evangelist for Macromedia Corporation and a successful business development manager for Corel Corporation.

Strategic Internet Marketing- Increase Your Sales

Getting your online advertising seen takes both skill and a lot of research. Here is a great article that explains some of the ways that you can increase your chances of getting your ads seen by the right people.

With millions of websites out there being visited by millions of computer users, how can you make sure that your ad can be seen by your target customers and that your leads will be followed by these users? Here are a few tips.

1. Place an ad on the websites frequented by your target customers. Before doing this, you need to define who will be your target customers. Placing an ad on sites that they usually visit will increase the possibility that your ad will gain the attention and will be followed your target customers.

Also, consider the website's search engine placement, traffic, external linking and the other ads placed on it. External linking will determine if there are other sites that link to this site. This will mean that people can get to the site where your ad is placed, even if they are browsing a different site. Check if many of your competitors have ads on this site.

2. Placing ads on some sites cost some money. However, there are also sites that can place a link to your site, product or service in exchange of having their link being displayed on your site. This is also true about the newsletters sent by site owners to its mailing list members regularly.

Also, having helpful links placed on your site and having sites link to your pages help in boosting search engine ranking. This is similar to making a statement that your site's content is important that other sites have links to your web pages.

3. Pay-per-click (PPC) is also a good method in Internet marketing. You will only need to pay for the ad if the link is clicked. If you prefer this method of advertisement, make sure that you are using services that set limits on daily expenses. There are also services that help you determine effective keywords and monitor the PPC results.

4. Choose your domain name wisely. It is still being debated if domain names matter when it comes to search engine placement. Whether it does or not, having product related domain names help consumers remember your domain, that they can go back to your site even without the links.

5. Make sure you have useful content on your sites. While keyword density is important in search engine placement, having useless information or annoying repetition of keywords will not increase your customer's confidence in your site. It may even affect your sites traffic and can get your site removed from search engines. So make sure that keywords are used strategically.

6. When thinking of keywords, think like your target customers. What do you think are they going to search so they can get to your site? Also, use specific keywords or key phrases. Submitting a single word or a very general phrase to a search engine will not get you to the top of the search results compared to submitting specific keywords that describe your product and services perfectly.

7. Track your ads. Always check how much you have spent on placing links on frequently visited sites and on PPC. There are services that allow you to monitor PPC transactions and how many of these end in sales. You always need to consider if the ads that you have placed on these websites are getting you to your target consumers and if these ads can lead to revenue.

One final tip on marketing products and services, sell the benefits. It will help your marketing strategies a lot if you highlight the benefits of choosing your products and services instead of merely discussing the product specifications. Product specifications may not mean much to customers, unless they know what these stand for (how these specifications affect the quality of the product or service).

Many people say getting to the top of search engine results is difficult since millions of websites exist, which can be using the same keywords. While this is true, this doesn't mean that your website has to stacked under your competitors' websites when presenting search engine results. Strategic advertising and linking, together with useful content, can also get you to the top of the search results.

About the Author:

Samizr Khan teaches Integrity Marketing with blogs. Learn how to build a list & make more money online, visit his blog at www.samizrkhan.name.

Watch Your Search Engine Positions

A great article dealing with search engines and the important role that they play for any online venture.

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the market" closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn't become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor's position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor's position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their positions - have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term marketing campaign.

About the Author:

Tyler Ellison is a successful entrepreneur who teaches free traffic hits secrets and internet video marketing tricks.

Website Marketing- Stand Out From The Crowd

Website marketing has evolved in many ways over the years. Way back when, website owners depended primarily on search engines for their survival. Today, the advances in technology have made the marketing game more competitive than ever. This article sums it up pretty well.

As a web site marketer these days, in the 21st century, you have to work harder than ever to stand out from the pack. Everybody's sending out ezines. Nearly all of us hold teleseminars.

Add your ezine and teleseminar and you're joining a parade down Main Street. Sometimes you can generate leads even more effectively if you also run through the alleys and knock on back doors.

Often these back-door "sneaky" strategies seem too easy to be effective. But simplicity can be deceptive. You need to plan carefully to avoid wasting time. Used incorrectly, the back-door approach can backfire. You have to play by rules that change overnight and that aren't easy to figure out.

Strategy #1: Contribute to a discussion list related to your topic.

For lead generation, join a group whose membership matches your target market as closely as possible. Choosing the right group can be challenging. For example, you may be eligible to join a forum after attending a workshop or purchasing a manual. Or you may pay to join a mentoring group. These groups create forums and discussion lists directly related to your interests, but moderators tend to be extremely cautious about self-promotion.

You can also search through yahoo or google for groups. For example, you can search on "professional women discussion list" or "work at home dads discussion list." Some websites feature lists of discussion groups, often arranged by topic. Searching through listings takes time but, with patience, can produce some good results.

Tips:

Once you join a forum or discussion lists, it's a good idea to "lurk" for awhile. Get a sense of the group's mood and style. Introduce yourself. Evaluate your responses. If you sense a lack of interest (and occasionally even hostility), consider withdrawing from the group.

The challenge is to draw a fine line between contributing proactively and becoming a nuisance. Success depends on finding just the right blend of asking questions and providing expertise.

Example 2: Write reviews for online bookstores.

As an avid and eclectic reader, I began writing reviews for one of the online bookstores. Originally, I was just having fun and actually felt guilty for taking time from my "real" work. I wrote about everything: mysteries, business books, nonfiction.

To my surprise, these book reviews began to attract subscribers, clients and invitations to be interviewed by professional reporters and writers. Recently one of my reviews was quoted in a blog, giving me valuable (and totally unexpected) publicity.

When these readers came, they were highly motivated. Unlike readers of ezines, they were prepared to pay or resources. After all, bookstores don't give away books! I suspect many hold a credit card in one hand as they surf with the other.

Tips:

Choose best-selling books related to your topic -but not exclusively.

Write carefully, using correct grammar and style. I've found that I get the most response by being edgy but thoughtful, and not too long or too short.

Follow the guidelines concerning what you can disclose about your business. Your review can be edited or removed entirely if you appear to be selling or if you use inappropriate words.

Bottom Line: Often we find our most successful back-door strategies by accident. But applying those strategies callsapplyin for planning, flexibility and responsiveness to change.

About the Author:

FREE 7 Best-Kept Secrets of Websites That Really Attract Clients: My Special Report gives you insider tips to convert tire-kickers to buyers and earn money while you sleep. From Cathy Goodwin, The Content Strategist, at Website Marketing Strategies.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directlyis a recent release that discusses in detail new marketing and PR strategies today. From the review:

Though it may not yet have affected the value of 30 seconds of Super Bowl advertising, PR insider Scott argues that understanding the growing irrelevance of marketing's "old rules" is vital to thriving in the new media jungle. Already apparent in newspapers and magazines (with sharp downturns in circulation and ads), radio (on the losing end of the iPod revolution) and direct mail (digitally replaced by spam), the imminent fall of traditional mass media marketing means new opportunities for legions of smaller companies and independent professionals who need to reach niche markets cheaply and effectively. The way Scott sees it, this is also good news for consumers: the online culture of integrity and information tends to produce quality content for less, as opposed to the vapid, one-sided and pricey advertising of print media and television. Scott provides the technical novice a thoughtful and accessible guide to cutting-edge media arenas and formats such as RSS, vodcasts and viral marketing, without neglecting the fact that technological wizardry can't substitute for a well-thought out marketing program. Besides emphasizing fundamentals like defining one's audience, Scott also drills home the ethos and etiquette of the web, encouraging content that's both useful and unobtrusive. This excellent look at the basics of new-millennial marketing should find use in the hands of any serious PR professional making the transition.

Growing Your Business With Google

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Growing Your Business with Googleis a great read for anyone involved in online commerce. Google, the online search giant, can be a very valuable partner in your marketing and promotion plans.

Using the Internet to increase the visibility of a small business today is no easy task. It can take a lot of time, energy, and money—especially if you’re not a computer expert. Here, readers can get a valuable overview of how search engines, web sites, ad services, and web logs can all work together to build a business, as well as practical hands-on tips, tricks, and planning tools to help readers create and execute a plan that utilizes the Internet to its fullest.

Sections include:

• Part 1 - The Business Case for Google: Increasing Your Business Visibility; The Benefits of Increasing Your Visibility with Google; What Is Google Anyway?; Learning About Google Search; Disassembling the Google Search Engine

• Part 2 - Building Your Google Plan: What's Your Core Business?; Living in an Online World; Your Business Website; Assessing Your Competitors; Keeping Track of Customers

• Part 3 - Improving Your Online Business Site: The Basics of Building a Good Business Site; Developing Online and Offline Content; Stretching Your Marketing Dollars; Secrets of the Online Marketing Masters

• Part 4 - Promoting and Growing Your Online Business: Content, Content, Content!; Becoming a More Popular Site; Becoming an Online Expert; Advertising Your Business with Google AdWords; Making Money with Google AdSense; The Advantages of Affiliate Programs; Avoiding Dumb Online Promotional Mistakes

• Part 5 - What's Next on Your To-Do List?: Growing and Expanding Your Content; The Future of Findability

Whether you are just starting out or are actively marketing and selling online, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Growing Your Business with Google is a must have book for your business library.

Driving Traffic to Your Website

Simply having a great website and product line will not translate into success online. You must have good traffic for people to see your great site and products. I found this article which gives some great tips on how to increase your website traffic.

Take the Wheel - Drive Customers to your Website

So you own a small business and you have made the decision to build a simple website to gain internet exposure. Or maybe you already have a website that no one visits? You can be the proud owner of the slickest website you have ever seen, but if you aren’t getting any traffic because it’s not properly optimized you have wasted a good chunk of change and a lot of your valuable time. Weather you are building a site from scratch or tweaking one that already exists, consider these web hosting and marketing tips to help drive traffic to your website:

For Web Hosting:

1) Start with keywords - Think about terms potential customers would use to find you in a search engine. What would you type in if you were looking for your business?

2) Use a keyword selector tool - Type your keywords into a keyword selector tool to see how many people have searched on the term in the last 30 days. Look for terms in the 2k-10k range that are relevant to your site.

3) Use domain names which match your keywords – My client advertises products that are geared toward leadership skills development. In addition to leadingonedge.com he also has leadership-skills.info and a handful of others.

4) Use keywords throughout your web pages - Put your keywords in the title, description, keywords, graphics, and written text.

5) Use a keyword density analyzer - Check your website against a keyword density analyzer to see how frequently a specific keyword is used. Shoot for 3-15% density.

6) Slick and sexy doesn't get you traffic - Don't waste your money on slick graphics or things that fly across your screen. Most visitors find them annoying and search engines don't care for them.

7) Use Google AdSense on your website - Whenever someone clicks on a Google ad in your website, you get revenue. And the ads are relevant to your content. My websites now pay for themselves with ad revenue alone.

8) Advertise Amazon books and products on your website - Set up an Amazon Associates account and put relevant books and products on your website. When someone buys a product you get referral revenue.

9) Consider using a website starter package - If going it on your own, think about using a website starter package which can have you up and running quickly.

10) Decide where you want to spend your time - In any business, time is money! Small business web hosting is very doable, but it does take time. Decide if you want to do it yourself or have a professional help you.

For Marketing:

1) Get an automated eCommerce system - These can be really good, very comprehensive and very inexpensive. The good ones can do everything from customer base management to product management to shopping cart to newsletter broadcasts.

2) Get a cheap and reliable merchant account provider - You can get merchant account providers that do both the merchant account and internet gateway for you.

3) Put a link back to your website in your email autosignature - This doesn't need to be obnoxious, just a simple link that email recipients can click on to reference your website.

4) Do selective link trading - Link trade, but make sure the content on the other websites is similar to your own. Don't touch "link farms" with a ten-foot pole; search engines hate them.

5) Write articles and include your website address – Every business owner has something to say that someone would love to read about! There are a number of article databases out there that are researched for website content. Find some article databases which house content similar to yours and write a few articles. You'd be amazed at where your articles show up!

6) Write newsletters - Allow for customers and visitors to subscribe to a newsletter to get regular visibility to you and your company. This is also a great way to compile a customer email data base for your business.

7) Consider using a search engine submission services - These services submit your site to multiple search engines & directories. This can be helpful particularly if your website is new.

8) Set up an affiliates program - Allow for others to promote your products on a commission basis. Again a good eCommerce system should already have this built in.

9) Download the Google Toolbar – I am a Google toolbar fanatic! The Google Toolbar has a nifty feature which shows you the page rank (0-10 scale) of every site you visit; the higher your page ranking the higher your placement in search engines.

10) Set up multiple websites - Got three services you perform? Set up three different websites with domain names that match your keywords. Super cheap to do and can be very effective.


Lori Quaranta
http://www.consetta.com
http://www.consettapr.com

Blog Marketing for Your Business

It is no secret that I feel strongly that blogs are an excellent way to advertise any online business. This article goes in depth and explains the many advantages of using this approach.

7 Key Benefits to Blog Marketing for Your Business

By: Craig Cannings

While Experts predicted that blogging as a whole would slow down in 2007, it is evident that Blog Marketing for web businesses continues to emerge as an increasingly powerful tool for dialoguing with prospective customers and increasing audience reach on the Net.

Many business owners may have uncertainties or misconceptions as to the value of business blogging. Some believe that too much time and effort will be required to effectively implement a blog marketing platform into their existing promotional efforts, with little return on investment.

Those business owners who use blogs regularly will concur that they are simple to create and relatively easy to maintain once you gain an initial comfort level and identify your blogging persona. It typically will only take 10-30 minutes out of the day to properly submit a blog post. The results, however, are far-reaching and surprisingly effective.

So,

What are the major advantages of blog marketing?

1. Low Cost Marketing Channel
Blogs are cheap - even free. Blogs are easily built into an existing website. Blogs can also be maintained at dedicated hosting sites all over the web for low or no cost. Typically it would be recommended that a web business create their own blog domain for brand awareness purposes. It also looks that much more professional in my opinion.

2. Excellent Avenue to Build a Network
Every business needs a network; an internal network between divisions and an external network with other companies and customers. Staying in contact with so many individuals, however, takes large investments of time. A regular blog on the other hand is quickly written (particularly when you are close to and well versed in your subject matter). Blogs can reach thousands of targeted readers at any time in any place.

3. Enhanced Company Visibility
Closely related to networking, Blog marketing benefits a company by keeping it visible. The next time a customer or collaborating company is in need of your product or services, your business will be foremost on their minds.

Part of the benefits of blogging visibility has to do with links. On-site blogs can link to other areas within your site, but off-site blogs can link directly back to it. As you build your blog presence, you may eventually swap links with other high-traffic blogs further adding to your traffic and search engine results.

4. Increased Product Exposure
Blog marketing is extremely useful for gaining mainstream visibility for your products. Your product line may be the focal subject of your company blog - a place where you educate consumers or prospective customers on product features and use, or a place to debut new additions to your line.

Product advertising is of course not limited to company blogs. Blogs on every imaginable subject span the net. Paying high quality bloggers to speak about your products or review your company is another effective blog marketing technique. There are Blog networks like Loudlaunch.com or Sponsoredreviews.com where you can tap into a network of bloggers that work on a pay per post model. This can be a low cost and effective way to grow your product awareness.

5. Enhanced Company Persona
Blog marketing is one way to come down to a more personal level with customers. The voice and style of the blog lets customers get a feel for who you are as a company and whether you are the kind of person they would like to be involved with.

When one individual regularly maintains the blog, customers get to know that person, and feel they have built a relationship with them. The result from this aspect of blog marketing is a more trustworthy, lasting relationship.

6. Improved Customer Interaction
Comment features on blogs are ideal ways to get to know your customer base. An engaging business blog is a place to hear kudos and complaints, as well as conduct informal focus groups, determining how else customers needs might be fulfilled. In this new Web 2.0 frontier, healthy customer dialogue is a key ingredient for successful web endeavors.

7. SEO Optimized Content
We have all heard it said, "Content is King" on the Internet. Adding a blog to your site adds to your featured content, providing yet another indexable content source. It is essential to employ tools like Wordtracker.com and Hittail.com to identify targeted keywords that you want to write some blog posts on. The key is to include the keyword in the blog title as well as in the post and technorati tags.

Blog marketing is quickly becoming known as one essential wave in a progressive web company's future. The minimal cost, both financially and time-wise, coupled with unlimited potential for exposure and connection make business blogging a no-lose proposition.

Article Source: http://www.articlestoreprint.com

Craig Cannings is the owner and managing director of ESalesGuru.com, a innovative marketplace connecting ebusinesses with niche Internet Marketing Specialists and Firms worldwide. Visit us at: www.esalesguru.com.

Using A Blog For Affiliate Marketing

A good video explaining the set up of a blog to be used for affiliate marketing.

Doing Business in Second Life

Second Life, the virtual online community, has been featured in many news stories lately. While many users adopt virtual lives and use the medium as a means to meet others, businesses and individuals have also joined the community as a mean to earn extra income.

Search Engine Optimization

No traffic- No sales. It is really as simple as that. As with any business, online or brick and mortar, if you do not have potential customers looking at your purchases, you will not survive. Reading through the following article will shed some light on exactly what is involved in trying to improve your search engine ranking.

Search Engine Optimization And The Magic Fairy Dust

There is only one thing that all webmasters agree upon... They all want to be at the top of the search engine results for search terms that will drive traffic and consumers to their website.

The truth is that the search engines are like our childhood game of King Of The Hill. Only one person can be at the top of the hill and the top of the search results. Only ten websites can be on page one of the search results. When a new website moves into the top ten, another must be removed.

For any given search term at any given time, there are only ten web pages on page one of the search results, and there are millions of web pages that did not make page one, who may or may not catch a few stragglers from the search engines.

How Can A Website Break Into The Top Ten?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an industry that has sprung up around the concept of helping their clients improve their rankings in the search engine results.

When you talk to SEO professionals, they generally point to a two-pronged approach to search ranking optimization. A website owner needs to optimize their on-site real estate for the search engines, and they need to build inbound links to their website.

On-Site Search Optimization Challenges

The trick with on-site search optimization is that you must cater to multiple audiences on your website.

* You must provide simple navigation and an attractive interface to the human visitor;

* You must provide good sales copy to your human visitors, for the purpose of converting them from shoppers to buyers;

* You must provide text copy for the search engines to read; and

* You must optimize your content to help the search engines know what topics and keywords they should pay attention, so that they can give their users the right web page for the right search terms.

A web page that draws good search rankings is useless if the web page cannot convert the human visitor to a buyer. Many website owners get caught up in the process of optimizing a web page to get it to the top of the search results, and they forget that the human visitor knows where the Back Button is in his or her browser. Once your visitor has hit the Back Button, they will go to someone else's website and buy from them, instead of you.

Most website owners have the alternate problem. They consistently convert a significant number of visitors to buyers, but they have to rely on various forms of paid advertising to get visitors to their websites, since they do not rank in the search engines.

I recently spoke with an individual who spends ,000 per month on pay-per-click advertising to get targeted traffic to his website. He said he consistently earns back his money, but he was still looking for a better way to get ranked in the search engines, so he joined my client list.

On-Site Search Engine Optimization Basics

According to the search engine companies, there are more than one thousand calculations that determine how well a website will rank in their search engine result pages (SERPs).

The Google engineers are fond of saying that if you build your website for human beings instead of search engines, then your website should rank well in their algorithms. To a certain degree, this is a good strategy.

Think about how magazines are constructed:

The Table Of Contents shows story titles, brief descriptions, and page numbers telling you where you can find a story.

On the story page, the title will be in big, bold font. Sometimes, the magazine will include a brief blurb about the story, in italics or font that is a bit bigger than the story font.

Pictures support the story with captions that further develop the story, by describing the picture.

Major subsections of the story have their own subheadings. And, the primary body of the story is in regular plain text, with only an occasional bolded or italicized word or phrase.

By analyzing the title and other large text on the page, a person who is flipping through the pages of a magazine can quickly assess the story content and make the decision as to whether they want to read the full story.

In the most simplistic way, this is how the search engines analyze a websites' content to decide which web page will best serve their users' needs.

Off-Site Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Basics

Since the inception of Google, and with Yahoo and MSN recently, the number and quality of links pointing to a website play a significant role in determining how well a web page will rank in the search results.

I have heard people suggest that as much as 75% of the value given to a web page in the search results is based solely on the number and quality of links pointing to a web page. I tend to believe a more conservative number (50.1%) will apply.

Inbound Links Are More Important Than Page Content

To prove this point, type "click here" without the quotes into Google, Yahoo and MSN and check the Adobe pages that come up in the search results: #1 in Google, #2 in Yahoo, and #1 in MSN. When you pull up those pages, search the page to find the individual words "click" or "here" in the text of those pages. They are not there. This has happened because millions of people have linked to these Adobe pages with the embedded anchor text, "click here".

Next, let's analyze those specific web pages from the perspective of each of the search engines:

* Google's #1 result - Google PageRank 8. (www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) Links to this web page: according to Google (31); according to Yahoo (nearly 12 million); according to MSN (6,400).

* Yahoo's #2 result - Google PageRank 10. (www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer) Links to this web page: Google (15,200); Yahoo (700 thousand); MSN (32).

* MSN's #1 result - Google PageRank 8. (www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash) Links to this web page: Google (0); Yahoo (2.9 million); MSN (778).

On Google's top result, they show 31 inbound links total for that web page. But, Yahoo claims that there are more than 12 million links to this page. That is a huge difference.

On Yahoo's #2 result, MSN gives 32 links, Google gives 15,000 links, and Yahoo claims it has 700 thousand links! That is another huge difference between the link counts from the search engines.

On MSN's #1 result, MSN shows a strong link count, but still nowhere near Yahoo's 2.9 million links. But, how does a web page with zero links in Google get a PageRank 8?

What Do These Numbers Mean?

Google has always said that they will never show us all of the links that we have pointing to our websites, because anything we can see in the public search results, our competitors can see also. So, for me it really is no surprise that we cannot see all of the links that point to Adobe pages, or to the links we have created that point to our clients and ourselves, by querying the search engines.

Also, the sheer numbers of inbound links do not rule the roost. Google's #1 result (PR8) is actually shown in Google, before Yahoo's #2 (PR10) result.

The Proof For Link Building Is In The Search Engine Rankings

Recently, a fellow who works as a SEO "professional" told me that be believed my link building system was a sham.

I showed him that on the top 51 keyword phrases we use to market our original commercial website, we had 11 number one results, 31 top five results, 34 top ten results, 47 top thirty results, and 51 top 100 results within the Google search results. Additionally, it was shown that only three of those results competed with fewer than one million search results according to Google, with the remaining 48 pages competing with one million to 533 million pages.

Ole boy tore up Google trying to track how it was possible for me to have accomplished what I claimed. He finally concluded that since Google would not show HIM how I was able to rank so well in their search engine results, then I must have been lying.

According to Yahoo, we have over 12,000 links from third-party websites. According to our site statistics, we received traffic from more than 16,000 unique web pages during 2006. And Google still swears that we only have 42 inbound links to our website!

Magic Fairy Dust

My nemesis concluded that since HE could not prove through Google how I was successful in getting good search rankings, then I could not have accomplished such results by the methods I claimed.

Okay, I admit it.

I used the exact same method that Adobe used to get to the top of Google's search engine rankings. I have a pocket full of magic fairy dust. Whenever, I do not like how my websites rank in the search engines, I sprinkle my magic fairy dust on my modem.

If you don't like where you are ranked in the search engines, then I suggest you forego the search engine optimization companies altogether and instead run over to the corner store to get your own magic fairy dust. You might have to shop around a bit, but it is out there.

About the Author:

Bill Platt has been involved with link building (http://www.linksandtraffic.com/seo-services/link-building.html) since 1999 for his own promotion and for search engine marketing purposes, and he has been doing it professionally for clients since 2001. Visit http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com to learn more. If you would like to talk to Bill in person, he can be reached at (405) 780-7745 between 9am and 6pm CST, Monday through Friday.