Improving Conversions with Comparisions.

How can you get customers to buy from you? It all starts with having a landing page that sells. Start with a blog or website and make comparisons.

1. Blog or Website

First off, in order to sell your product directly using internet marketing, I assume that you have a website or blog. If you do not have one, you need to get one made. These days a blog or website is very easy to create. If you are a dead beginner, the one I recommend that you use is Word Press Direct or Blogger. Each allows you to create a blog on which you can create ads and ad other widgets. Furthermore, it is so simple, that you can have your site up in a day (or less) using their tools for free. They allow three free websites, and they will even host it for you.

On your website or blog, you should have a sales page. This page is the page from which browser click to actually complete their purchase. This page is usually the page with a button on it that says "Buy Now," or have a click-able link.

Your page will have friendly and knowledgeable ad copy that will address the decision factors that will capture their attention. It is essential that you have researched and know the issues or problems that your customers have. The ad copy also provides the general answers to the solution and the specific features of your product that deliver this solution. So you must provide a very clear path from your customers' problems to benefits that makes sense to your customer.

Here is a specific promotional tool you can use to improve conversions:

Comparison Tables. Use a table that shows the benefits to the customer and compares you to the next leading competitive solution. Make sure that the benefits are solutions to their critical issues. You do not need to name your competitor, and I advise you not to unless your competitor is very entrenched.

Give this a try when doing business online. Develop a site quickly and for little or no money. Then, focus on your conversion page and make a comparison!

No Follow Tags: Are They Hurting Your Link Building

Most readers of the Improve Your Search Engine Rankings Blog know how much I love to talk about link building. Unfortunately, many of the tactics that used to work in the past are slowly losing their impact.

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One popular seo method is building links. However, as sites focus on balancing their inbound and outbound links, many have begun using NoFollow tags. The nofollow tag is simply a way to tell search engines which links to follow and which not to follow.

The benefit to the site that places a nofollow tag is that they do not give away any of thier "link juice". As a result, the Google PR of that particular page remains relatively intact even if they add tons of links to the page. In the eyes of Google, those links (when given a no follow tag) are basically invisible or at least weighted much less.

What this means to you...

When building links to your website, either through forum posts, article submissions, or blog posts, make sure that your link is not deemed as no follow. A great way to do this is to find a plug in for your browser that will highlight no follow tags. You can simply do a google search to find these tools. Doing a search on "plugin to highlight nofollow tags" I found about a dozen links to downloadable plugins for both ie and firefox.

What is Page Rank?

Page Rank (PR) is largely based upon the number and quality of back links a webpage has. It's an important factor to how well a particular webpage ranks within the Google search results.

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Google loves high PR sites as they stand for authority. They have a huge number of back links plus Google gave them the Page Rank in the first place so in return sends their spider bots to visit them again and again. Some get crawled every couple of hours and some within days.

Authority sites have such rapid activity that Google doesn't want to miss any new information to present to the their end user. A search engine user!

Google works hard to give the best relevant search results and so do the other search engines, however Google dominates. Now to get on to these high page rank sites, paying for a link is expensive, occasionally very expensive! It can cost anything up to $5,000 a month depending on the advertisement.

How can you get there? Instead of paying for links, we are going to give these sites content. You can advertise and give out a lot of money. However don't forget, an advertisement can be noticed a mile off. Where content on an authority site is worth reading!

About.com, is an authority site, with a PR7. It's within the top 100 sites visited worldwide according to Alexa.com. So this in effect means a ton of visitors. If you learn to get listed there, you will reap thousands of visitors literally within seconds.

There are other ways to monetize from these sites and be able to get an absurd number of visitors within seconds, depending on the quality content you give them.

Improve Search Engine Ranking With Video

Today, with blended search results such as web pages, pdfs, video, and more, diversification is key. I recently saw a great campaign from a group of college students that helped to promote a pretty common item using segmentation and the right media (check out The Marketing Blog: Learn Your Marketing From a Bunch of College Students. 2009).

The upshot is that they not only knew how to speak to their market but they used various media to get the message out and made it easy to consume. They used a facebook application and video. Why does this matter when it comes to improving your search engine ranking? Because your videos may show up in search results.

Be sure to title and tag your video's appropriately. Doing so can result in a YouTube or other video appearing towards the top of a search result.

SEO and SEM For Improving Search Engine Rankings

What is SEO? How does search engine optimization apply to your business? Search Engine Optimization is where guys like me use writing tools to improve your website, boosting its position in the search engine rankings. We know the right keywords for your business to refine your site so that when people type into their Google search engine the words 'emergency plumber in London', your name is at the right end of the search engine rankings.

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It's never an exact science, of course, as the search engines are constantly shifting goalposts in terms of ranking criteria but, with a bit of work, you can move quickly up the search engine rankings and, in turn, increase your market share. So that's SEO. Search engines are moving away from keywords to more of a concentration on overall website content and customer relationship building which, ultimately, helps with your link building.

Search Engine Marketing is the new buzz phrase. Engaging customers on a personal level - blogs, social media, it was all there before, but now people are beginning to understand the merits of using networking sites like Twitter (which we'll look at a little later) to promote your business to the world.

Who are the companies surviving this recession? It's the brand names who have built up a loyal fan base, who are talked about with fondness on the web, the brands who ask their customers what they need during tough times and then deliver it. Driving through a recession is not about price cutting (although this is important in terms of cash flow), it's about identifying what customers really want and giving it to them. The companies that are surviving are adapting…and fast. Most weren't, sadly, prepared for how severe the recession would be and many paid the price (Viyella, Woolworths, etc). Business survival is about listening. Then delivering to the right place at the right time.

So what is Search Engine Marketing and how does it differ from SEO? Well, think of SEO as a slice of your favourite pie. It's delicious, right? You can't wait for another piece. Suppose there are six of you and each one loves pie but one loves custard on his, another is vegetarian, another likes cherries on top, etc. SEM gives you all a piece of pie and it's exactly as you like it.

Ah, organic, natural online growth, don't you just love it? SEM is the pie, being baked again and again to adjust to the particular preferences of Mr Cherry On Top and Miss Custard. SEM focuses on on-site and off-site adjustments in order to maximise rankings in SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). SEM uses all types of strategies (SEO, Pay Per Click, web visibility strategies, etc) to market your products online via search engines like Google and MSN.

Here Are Some Great Ways To Build In-Bound Links To Your Website

Looking to improve search engine rankings? Here are some traditional, as well as new techniques, for building inbound links and improving search engine rankings.

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1. Submission to web directories
2. Manual submission to social bookmarking sites
3. Do-follow blog posting and commenting

Other ways to build in-bound links includes:

1. Yahoo answer posting
2. Forum posting
3. Relevant do-follow blog comments

Basically, all of these techniques are designed to increase page rank, as well as boost your Google and other search engine rankings. Give them a try.

Top Tips For Improving Search Engine Rankings

When a Search Engine spiders your website, it's crucial that all the backend coding of our clients websites is up to par. A simple glitch in coding can cost the loss of a potential targeted keyword or the loss keywords ranking on an entire page.

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Be sure to review your Website to determine Search Engine compatibility so the next time it is crawled, you benefit from the crawl. Search Engine Optimization industry leaders have always believed in the phrase that content is king and it's undeniable.

Let's think about content logically. A Search Engine spider is a robot and is not programmed to interpret something that is not there. In other words, you can't rank under keywords that the Search Engine can't read or see.

Make sure all factors relating to the content of a website including keyword density, positioning, etc., are thoroughly reviewed for optimal performance.

Here are a few other factors to consider for improving search engine results:

Keyword Research & Analysis

Keyword research is a very often overlooked and can prove to be one of the most important parts to running a successful Search Engine Optimization campaign. Invest in keyword research including keyword research tools, reviewing multiple keyword suggestions, and/or Website content keyword possibilities in order to gain targeted Website visitor traffic.

On-Page Optimization

After generating a keyword list, keywords should be implemented into the appropriate site code and content on key pages with optimization techniques based on the Websites needs.

Manual Search Engine Submissions

Manually submit your Website to the major search engines and directories including Google, Yahoo, MSN, DMOZ, etc. and be sure to make updates as needed throughout the year to increase your ranking on all these major search engines.

These are just a few suggestions and tips for improving search engine rankings. Keep it simple but consistent. This will help you to continue moving up the search engines.

Prepare to Be Crawled: Optimize Your Site For Search Engine Spiders

As you may be able to guess by the name, search engine crawlers are little bots that travel the internet looking for new websites and ranking them based on a given algorithm.

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When they come across a new website, they rank it in different ways, taking many things in to consideration. These ranks help to determine where the site is going to end up in a search done on a search engine.

The first thing that you have to do for these crawlers is to get noticed by them, and that is the hardest part of SEO, or at least that is what SEO consultants want you to think. The truth of the matter is, you can get your website noticed by simply visiting different popular search engines and adding your URL to their submission forms. A little known secret but 100% truth.

Additionally, you must get links from other web sites pointing to your site in order to obtain link popularity and credibility with the major search engines. This way, search engine crawlers will know where your site is, and find it more quickly. They will also consider your site a relevant source of information if other sites link to you.

After that, it's all about marketing your web site on the internet through search engine optimization techniques. These little crawlers are programmed to look for certain things on your web site, these are things that SEO experts study and have an understanding for.

Using the services of SEO Consultants to help in your marketing, however they can be very costly, so you should hire a service provider that is talented and can provide a portfolio to ensure you get quality work.

Before hiring someone to work on your web site you should make sure they use ethical search optimization and marketing tactics and also make sure that they can provide results.

The first and most important thing that crawlers look for is, of course, keywords. Keywords on your web page and throughout your web site's content is important. More important though are keywords in the links pointing to your site. When it comes to search engine optimization, use keywords wisely. Don't over-saturate your web site with keywords because you can get docked as a spammer. These keywords have to be worked into the web page and not just listed there.

You should integrate keywords into your content, page titles, meta tags and URL. Also, it will help the marketing of your web site if you work them into the titles of your web page as well.

There are many more techniques you can use to optimize your website and most have been well documented (The Webmaster's Book of Secrets: Improve Search Engine Rankings) so do some research and apply these techniques whenever possible.

Don't leave your SEO to chance. Not only should you be prepared to be crawled, but you should also focus on optimization each and every day.