The Profit Shack

In the last post we talked about good keyword selection for SEO. In this post we will be talking about the do’s and don’ts of search engine optimization. There are a lot of people who can grasp the general idea of SEO, but still have no idea on how to go about the entire process. Unfortunately, not knowing the basic do’s and don’ts when it comes to search engine optimization will create some problems for you and your website later on, so it is important that you learn them as soon as possible. The basic concept of search engine optimization is that you can improve the page ranking of your site on search engines by using certain techniques and methods to help your site get indexed and ranked. By following a few simple guidelines on what to do and what not to do, you should be able to get the desired results that you want to achieve with your SEO campaign. Let’s start off with the importance of your domain name. A good domain name, such as a www.yourkeywords.com, can actually play a major role in your site’s page ranking, so make sure that you invest in a good domain name. People tend to trust domain names that end in .com more than other types of domain names like .net and .biz and they tend to look for sites that have this type of domain name. So having a .com can give you an edge over your competition right from the start, so make sure that you invest in a good domain name. As we discussed in the last post, keywords are key to your success. One of the most important things that you should remember when it comes to good SEO is that you must learn what keywords or tags to use in association with your website. Knowing which keywords to associate with your site will help drive the right traffic to your site, as well as make it easier for your site to get discovered by people online. Once you figured out what keywords you want to use, try to place them in key locations, such as in the content or body of the title tag, since these are the places Image by DavidErickson via Flickr wherein search engines will give the greatest weight in the entire optimization process. Also try to use the keywords that you have chosen in your URL’s, as well as in your HTML title tags, for these will also provide you with a boost in your page ranking. Again as I mentioned in the last post, avoid using keywords that are too general, because it will definitely make it even more difficult for you to get high up in the search engine rankings. Remember not to overuse your chosen keyword, like using the same keyword three or four times within one sentence, for search engines are now monitoring this, and doing this can take your site out of the page rankings. The content of your site is extremely important, so take the time to create high quality, relevant content to give your site a competitive edge and to beat other sites that are also associated with your keywords. Always bear in mind that there are other sites out there offering the same web content, so whoever offers the more relevant and superior content will win over the site visitor. You will also need to take note of keywords that you use on your content’s titles and body. Since search engines tend to look into these aspects of your site, you need to focus the use of your keywords to certain parts of your content in order for you to be able to optimize your website so it would be discernable from other sites offering the same content. Make sure that your site is not a “dead end” by building links with other sites that have relevant content to yours. By doing this, you can actually keep the traffic going from your site, to another’s, and then back to your site. You might think that building links with other sites will redirect traffic away from your site, but in most cases it actually does the opposite. Instead, it creates a lot of ways for traffic to get redirected to your site through the use of other people’s sites, thereby also helping in your site’s page ranking later on, as well as help in getting traffic to go to your site without them having to access your site directly. These are just a few of the do’s and don’ts when it comes to search engine optimization. It is important that do your research and learn everything you can about getting your site properly optimized if you want to achieve real results. Make sure you look for your next issue soon. We will be talking about some of the common mistakes that are made when it comes to SEO. Brand New SEO Method Guarantees You’ll Rank Position #1 on Google in any niche, every time! With absolutely no spamming, no cloaking, no blog farms, no link exchange networks and no ‘black-hat’ methods that will get your websites banned from the search engines. This system literally creates traffic & money on demand!  Click Here Now! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Search Engine Optimization Basics – Lesson 4", url: "http://www.theprofitshack.com/2009/11/30/search-engine-optimization-basics-lesson-4/" }); Read More →

In the last post we talked about how search engines spiders analyze data and index your website. In this issue we are going to talk about good keyword selection for SEO. One of the main components that helps determine the success, or failure, of your search engine optimization campaign is your keyword selection. Although this may not seem like a tough job at first, choosing the right keyword to use for your website is one of the more grueling parts of the entire SEO process, especially if you want to find the ones that will be most effective for your site. When using keywords for SEO, you just need to follow a few simple steps in order to properly find the right keyword that will do the job. There are also a couple of things that you need to look out for in order to avoid any problems when trying to optimize your web pages. The first thing that you should do if you want to be able to use keywords effectively is to start out by making a list of “key” keywords or phrases that are relevant to the content of your site, and by doing this, it can actually lead you to create or discover more keywords or phrases that may blossom from the original one that you have chosen. Once you’ve made a list, try to select ones that contain a “key” keyword or phrase that can help you identify your site’s content. Let’s say your site’s content is all about cars, using cars as a keyword won’t put you high up in the page ranking of search engines, especially since a lot of sites or pages have that as a keyword. Try to avoid using words or phrases that are too general like; dog, cat, car, makeup, because the competition for these common words will be very high and won’t really help improve your page ranking. Image via Wikipedia By adding other key terms to your chosen keyword, such as “custom built cars”, or “custom built sports cars” will actually help improve your chances of going up higher in the page rankings. Just make sure that the words you choose are relevant to your site’s content. It also helps if you take the time to search for keywords or phrases that your competition are using so that you can narrow down which ones to use, and which ones to avoid. There is no sense in using a type of keyword or phrase, such as “custom cars” if your top ten competitors are using it, and their site’s are ranked high up in the search engine’s index. Because unless you have a big advertising budget you will have a difficult time going up against them. You can also improve your chances of getting a much better page ranking result if you incorporate your location to the keyword or phrase that you are trying to use. Let’s say your business is located somewhere in Florida, by simply adding the word “Florida” to your keyword selection (“Florida custom sports cars”), you can fair better in your page ranking. However, this type of method usually entails that people are planning on seeing you in person when they do searches like this, so make sure that you only utilize this technique if you are open to the idea of them visiting you in person. Always try to choose the keyword that you specialize in, or at least the one that offers you with the most opportunity to rank well. Keep in mind that you want to look for the keywords that best describe your business and that is closely related and relevant to your site’s content. You can rank high if you use keywords wisely, but your site can also suffer or lose credibility if you overstuff. As a general rule, you should try to optimize your webpage by using your main keyword or key phrase no more than three times. You can also include one or two secondary keywords, but avoid overusing these. Tertiary keywords can also be used which are related or similar but not the same as the main terms. Using alternative keywords help drive other potential visitors that come from different areas and use different related terms to your website. The title is one of the most important parts of your web site or content. This is the name which you find at the top of the window of the web browser, or Title Bar. The title has to be descriptive but brief and short. It should also contain the targeted keywords that are highly related to your web site. Meta-tags have two parts namely the description and the keywords. The description should generally be short, but it should also be both descriptive and logical to the reader. Try to provide the reader with a brief overview of the page. The keywords should be the very same ones you use in the page text. When it comes to choosing the most effective keywords for your website there is a lot to learn and we have barely scratched the surface in this issue. I high recommend that you take the time to learn all you can about keyword research if you really want to take your site the top of the search engine listings. Make sure you look for your next issue soon. We will be talking about the do’s and don’ts of search engine optimization. Discover the best kept SEO secrets, guaranteed to generate an avalanche of free search engine traffic to your website! This simple step-by-step system doesn’t use spamming, cloaking, blog farms, or ‘black-hat’ methods. It just get your site ranked #1. Click Here Now! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Search Engine Optimization Basics – Lesson 3", url: "http://www.theprofitshack.com/2009/11/29/search-engine-optimization-basics-lesson-3/" }); Read More →

Search Engine Optimization Basics – Lesson 2 In the last post we talked a little bit about what search engine optimization is an how it can help you. In this issue we are going to talk about how search engines spiders collect and analyze data to index websites. Since you made the wise decision to subscribe to this newsletter I assume you understand the power of having high rankings in the search engines. As we discussed in the last issue good SEO can literally make your website visible to millions of potential visitors online which can ultimately lead to increased traffic, sales and income. You can use SEO to become highly successful in any subject that you are interested in. There a many techniques that you can use to get your website listed and ranked well so that it can be found by people all over the world. Search engines run programs called spiders also referred to as web crawlers, which go out every day and scour web pages all over the world to identify and catalog content. They also look for other links that they can scan later. Image via Wikipedia Spiders are very busy. As they go out and do their job everyday they send the results of the scans back to the search engine which often uses an algorithm to break down the information, analyze it and eventually catalog it. If the spiders visit a site and find a link to a new page or site, the links are stored for future visits. Over time other spiders will continue to crawl through the links indexing and storing data as they go. The more links from other sites and pages that lead to your website the more frequently you will receive crawls and visits to your website. Search engines generally view a combination of more than 200 factors to identify the right pages that must rank for certain queries. Factors include information contained in the web pages or on-page factors like title heading and page content. Off-site factors may also be included. The factors include the words used to link back to you, the reputation of the page linking to you and the duration of time the link has been present. Both off-site and on-site factors determine the search engine rankings. When you create your website do your best to make it easy to navigate. This will make it easier for the search engines and your human visitors will find it. Try to organize the website into clean, well labeled sections. Having good site architecture provides you with many advantages like: Easy expansion – as your business grows your website will grow with it. Easy navigation – less frustrations for your visitors and better search engine rankings. Easy maintenance – frees up your time for more important things like SEO. Keyword relevance is another very important factor that the search engines consider when they spider your site and it is an essential part of optimizing your site if you want to get good rankings. Always be on the look out for good keywords that pertain to your chosen topic. That way visitors can easily find you through the title and content if you include the right keywords and secondary terms that pertain to your chosen topic. There are many keyword generating tools and other online programs that will help you  seek out the best key words for your website. To find one all you have to do is  type “keyword tool” in to your favorite search engine and you will find many to choose from. When it comes to understanding when and which keywords to use there are many things to consider. Like the use of plural or singular terms, the order of words and how many keywords you should use your content. Which, is exactly what we will be talking about in the next post. So make sure you look for it soon and you will learn how choose good keywords for your site SEO. Grab Your Free Copy of “7 Days To Complete Search Engine Domination” course and you’ll discover  the secret to getting listedin Google in under 48 hours, plus how you can skyrocket your website to the top of search engines with off page optimization! Click Here Now! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Basics Of Search Engine Optimization – Lesson 2", url: "http://www.theprofitshack.com/2009/11/28/basics-of-search-engine-optimization-lesson-2/" }); Read More →

Starting today, I will be posting effective marketing strategies here, so make sure you come back daily to get the scoop. Search Engine Optimization Basics – Lesson 1 In each lesson of “Search Engine Optimization Basics” you will learn valuable information on how you can successfully use search engine optimization to get your website optimized and ranking well in the search engines. Image via Wikipedia Let’s start off by talking a little bit about what search engine optimization is an how it can help you. The process of search engine optimization or SEO is fairly easy, provided that you take the time to understand the different factors involved when it comes to getting your site well optimized, ranked and bringing in targeted traffic. There are many different techniques that you will have to learn so that you can make your website more visible to the world. Simply put, SEO is the process of developing and boosting the quality and volume of traffic that your website receives from the search engines. Search engines use organic or algorithmic methods to catalog and search for relevant websites according to the keywords that visitors type in. In most cases, the higher a website presents itself on the search results page, the higher number of visitors it will get from the search engine. Three of the most popular search engines include Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are literally thousands of search engine on the Internet that target various types of  searches like images, local searches and industry-specific topics. There a several ways that you can optimize your website from creating and changing the content to editing the HTML coding to help boost its ranking. SEO can be very beneficial for your website, provided that you follow the rules and guidelines that the search engines give you when you submit your site. There is a huge amount of information available online that can help you learn how to achieve long term success in the search engines and learning the basics is the best place to start. The simple fact is the better you optimize your website the better chance it has of reaching the top of search engine results page and the more traffic your site will receive. When used properly, SEO can make your website more visible and available to visitors all over the world. It is also very affordable way for you acquire hundreds or even thousands of new visitors and customers in a short amount of time. Not to mention the added benefit of enhancing your ability to earn more money too. Compared to paid advertising where you pay a certain amount of money to reach a specific amount of people, SEO gives you the ability to reach an unlimited amount targeted individuals for free. These are people that are actually interested in what you have to offer because they went searching for it. Once your site gets listed it becomes visible to your target market any time of the day or night. People can visit your site regardless of their location or yours. Good SEO continually works for you even when you aren’t working on it. As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as updating the content of your site, using the right title tags, meta tags and descriptions, so that the search engines can navigate and crawl to your pages easily. When you begin optimizing your website you will discover that it is important to make your pages accessible to search engines so they can index them appropriately. SEO is a process and as your site grows and you learn more you will discover several ways that you can enhance your onsite navigation and provide vital information that will appeal to your visitors as well as to the search engines. Learning how SEO works is the first step, especially for a beginner such as yourself. A basic understanding of how it works will help you determine the steps you need to take in order to fully realize and take advantage of everything that good SEO has to offer your website. Make sure you look for your next lesson where we will be talking about how the search engine’s spiders collect and analyze data to index websites. The Seo Method is Simply the Best SEO Strategy Ever!  You can literally create traffic and money on demand when you follow these basic steps included in this system. It is completely white hat and will get you ranked #1 on Google guaranteed! Click Here Now! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Basics Of Search Engine Optimization Begins Today!", url: "http://www.theprofitshack.com/2009/11/27/basics-of-search-engine-optimization-begins-today/" }); Read More →