Keywords Are King!

Good keywords bring lots of traffic, bad ones don't. If you want free search engine traffic, the first thing you need to do is to find out what exactly it is that people are searching for in the area that you're focused on. Then you pick key words that relate to your topic of interest, and that people are really searching for. You can have the best content in the world, but if you optimize for the wrong keywords you still won't get that sought after traffic.

For example, let's assume I am going to build a site about water heaters, and I want people to come to my site. I need to find out what kind of information about water heaters that people are looking for so I can build pages optimized for the keywords that people are really using.

The first thing I do is go to a keyword tool to do my keyword research. There are a number of keyword tools online, my favorite is Wordtracker. Others include KeywordDiscovery, and the Google AdWords suggestion tool There is simply no substitute for doing your keyword research. With these tools you can put in a seed word or phrase, and the tools will provide you with lists of related keywords and keyword phrases that are searched for, and how many times per month they are searched for. Using these tools there are ways to estimate the size of the market for products and services, ways to optimize you web pages, find new niche markets, and much more.

With Wordtracker I find quickly that many more people search for "tankless water heater" than search for water heater...which surprises me. Nearly as many people search for "hot water heater" as search for "water heater". Wordtracker also informs me that there are far fewer websites trying to be ranked high for "hot water heater" than for "water heater". Ah-Ha! I'll be sure to optimize a few pages for "hot water heater". In fact, I find that the terms "tankless water heater", "tankless hot water heater", "tankless water heaters", "electric tankless water heaters", and "tankless heaters" all have more people searching for them than "water heater".

Single word keywords are very difficult to get high rankings for, so it's wise to shoot for longer keyword phrases. Three and four word phrases are what I use most often.

After finding out what information people are looking for, and what keywords they are using to find that information, you can build the appropriate pages and optimize them for those keywords that have significant traffic searching for them.

Now that we have our keyword list and we are ready to build our pages, where do we put the keywords?

The first and probably one of the most important places to have your keywords are in the title tag. This is one of the tags in the head section of the html code of your web page and lists the title that is displayed in the web browser. Internet Explorer displays this tag in the top bar of the browser window. It's very important that you always write for humans. The search engines are getting smarter and smarter, and they are looking for sites optimized for humans, not search engines.

Get some of your keywords into the keyword meta tag, not crucial but it won't hurt.

Make sure you have some keywords in your Alt tags for your images...don't overdo it though. Write it for humans, but try to work a few keywords in if you can. Alt tags are displayed as a popup when you pass your mouse over an image.

The Description Meta Tag is still a valuable place to use your keywords. Many search engines will look at the description Meta tag for keywords to compare against your body copy. Yahoo uses your description tag as the description of your site in their listings. Consider the description tag just like it is named, a concise description of your site. Keep under 50 words.

Your body copy is obviously a very important place for placement of your keywords. Remember, write for humans. If your keywords don't appear in your body copy, you won't place high in the search engine results for those keywords. Work your keyword into the text appropriately. Select one or two keywords and make the page specifically about those keywords.

Use your keywords appropriately for humans on your site where you can. This will increase your search engine effectiveness.

About the Author:

William Lund has been a webmaster since 1998. His website provides free information about website design, development, promotion, and monetization. For more about keywords and other website topics visit: Lund One Web Marketing and More. Mr. Lund Also has a blog: Pondering Everything.

SEO Software: What's the Best?

Using the right SEO software is one of the most important things you can do for your website's success but finding it is not always easy. The products you hear the most about are often just the most advertised and not necessarily the best, or at least not the best to fit your particular needs.

For the most part, just about any product can help you in some way unless it's a real piece of junk. So if you already have one and are not getting the results you want, try to spend a little more time with it and make it pay off. But if you are looking, read on. This article focuses on three that have helped thousands get the ranking they need. Even if one is not right for you, you can see what the top rated tools do.

But before we dive into the tools, let's look at why we need them. In short; using SEO software is like buying time and expertise. A good product will save you a great deal of time and deliver the results of a search engine optimization expert. If you have a lot of free time to learn and perform manual SEO, you can save a hundred or so bucks and do it all without a tool. If you'd like to see faster results and focus your time in other areas, it's probably worth the money to buy a good product. Of course with so many claiming to be the best, the hardest part is finding the one that will work for you.

Over the past nine years, as an SEO consultant, I've used over a dozen well known, and not so well known SEO tools. The results have varied from "Wow!" to "What a waste!" We'll focus on the "Wows!" , one of which is likely to do what you need; 1.) SEO Equalizer, 2.) Traffic Travis, and 3.) SEO Elitek (what SEO professionals use to get the best possible results in the least possible time.)

So here they are, arranged by cost starting with the least expensive...

1.) SEO Equalizer ($77)

Those new to SEO, looking for a jumpstart with SEO software have found a winner with SEO Equalizer. It became popular as an SEO spy tool and soon caught on as a great link building program and keyword analyzer. It provides an easy 'in' for anyone wanting to take control of their Web placement destiny. It's great for anyone who wants to minimize spending, boost ranking and does not mind waiting a little longer to see great results (as compared to the Pro Pick, SEO Elite below.)

Here's what it does best:

A.) Finds your most competitive keywords and phrases.

B.) Locates and analyses competitor sites.

C.) Builds and helps maintain link partnerships.

Quick to learn and easy to use, SEO Equalizer is also one of the best bargains at $77 for a full license.

2.) Traffic Travis ($99)

This is a one of those hidden gems you dream about finding. A great app that not a lot of people know about (probably because the name is not very descriptive.) With a price tag of about $100, Traffic Travis is powerful enough for professionals and easy to use for a website owner, new to search engine optimization, who just wants results with very little learning curve.

Traffic Travis is like the "Swiss Army Knife" of SEO software and has become known as the "Site Owner's Best Friend." Here's some of what it does...

A.) Finds, sorts and organizes your most important keywords. B.) Shows your site's (and competitors') rankings on major search engines. C.) Completes full SEO page analysis for any Website, so you can see what the top ranked pages are doing right for 'on page optimization' and how you can do even better.

D.) Helps build and manage backlinks (very important for Google.)

E.) Manages your Google AdWords campaign if you do PPC.

F.) And even builds online survey pages to quickly collect visitor feedback once they find your site.

It's tough to do an "apples to apples" comparison of this one with either of the others. It wears a lot of hats that Website owners can benefit from. Like SEO Equalizer, Traffic Travis has shown me slightly slower results than SEO Elite, but is a great value.

3.) SEO Elite ($167)

My first "Wow!" happened in 2005 with SEO Elite. This app was the first truly affordable piece of SEO software I came across that did all it promised. At $167 it's about half the price of similar products but packs a lot more punch. It has three things that impress me almost as much as the results it gets...

1.) No annual feës (unlike some that charge $100 a year in "subscription" fees.)

2.) Free upgrades for life (I'm already on my third version and it just keeps getting better!)

3.) No Questíons Asked, 8 Week Guarantee or full rëfund.

That's why I bought it. This is why I kept it...

Google results after the first four weeks:

# 1 Spots = 7

# 2 Spots = 11

# 3 Spots = 16

Links = 409 high quality inbound links obtained (extremely important to rank well on Google)

That was all in the first month and for just one site. In the three years since then I have received hundreds of additional top rankings spanning multiple sites.

Here are some of the things SEO Elite does very well...

A.) Let's you check your site's ranking for unlimited keywords on the major search engines.

B.) Tracks any changes in rank and notifies you.

C.) Finds the best possible link partners for your site, based on Google's standards.

D.) Shows which partners are still linking back to you.

E.) Performs backlink searches on all major search engines.

F.) Analyzes and compares special search commands on Google.

G.) Finds exactly which websites your competitors are advertising on.

H.) Helps you eliminate any penalized websites you link to.

If you need great SEO software, can invest $167 and don't mind spending a few hours mastering a new tool, SEO Elite is worth looking at. It's the most widely used professional SEO software package for a reason. For a very special offer on SEO Elite, Click here...

Getting the right SEO software can be the best buying decision you ever make for your website.

About The Author
Scott Jason has been an SEO professional since 1999 and has had the opportunity to see the release of new SEO software products first hand, often as a Beta tester. The founder of BestSEOcopywriting, Scott also servers as the software reviewer on several popular blogs.

Special Offer on Today's Leading SEO Products

Special Offer To Blog Readers

Thanks so much for reading The Good Marketing Tips Blog and letting us share with you some of the SEO secrets we've used to rank #1 on Google and other major search engines. This special offer is only valid for a limited time - and only available to readers of this log.

If you're serious about reaching #1 on Google for your website, you'll need the top selling SEO software on the market, SEO Elite. SEO Elite has been around for a number of years and continues to be the most powerful tool for achieving search engine dominance.

For anyone purchasing SEO Elite from our site in the next 30 days, we will throw in the top selling SEO ebook of all time, The Webmaster's Book of Secrets, a $67 value. (Note: This offer is ONLY valid if you purchase this top selling software from (http://www.marketingscoop.com/seoelite.htm).

That's right, purchase SEO Elite and receive The Webmaster's Book of Secrets at no cost - no strings attached. This tell-tale guide is your source for everything SEO as it reveals powerful SEO techniques that have helped thousands of website owners reach #1 on Google for even the most competitive keywords and keyword phrases.

TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OFFER

Simply visit http://www.marketingscoop.com/seoelite.htm and purchase SEO Elite. Once you receive a payment confirmation, send an email with your purchase details to support@marketingscoop.com with "SEO Elite BONUS" in the subject line.

We will email you your very own copy of The Webmaster's Book of Secrets absolutely free. If you have any questions about this offer, visit Marketingscoop.com/seoelite.htm or email us at support@marketingscoop.com

Search Engine Optimization: How to Do-It-Yourself

There have always been do-it-yourselfers succeeding at web promotion and search engine optimization. In fact, many of the established businesses offering web services today came from humble beginnings, perhaps nothing more than a college student with a laptop, an internet connection, and too much free time. The Web evolves as the result of the innovation and experimentation of individuals. The sharing of knowledge. The do-it-yourself attitude.

As text link brokers and mass link networking decrease in value and use in social media increases, it becomes more important for companies to have an internal approach and awareness of search engine marketing. Don't get me wrong; outsourcing to SEO firms is still a smart option. That said, making the most out of Web 2.0 usually requires some level of cooperation between SEO firm and site owner. You don't need to be an expert to know the basics of good SEO practices, and that added knowledge will be a great advantage whether you're working along side an SEO team, or promoting your own site in your spare time.

So if you're on a "need to know" basis with SEO, the following points should illustrate what an overall plan should include:

1. Create Search Engine-Friendly Content

Unique web content is your most valuable asset, and ensuring search engines can read it is crucial. Text embedded in images or Flash cannot be read, so make sure you use important keywords, headings, and hyperlinks in plain text form. Instead of using images as navigation links, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) makes it easy to format those links to look more like 'buttons', thus creating powerful anchor text as well as making it visually appealing. Use heading tags properly and don't try to hide keywords or text by making it the same color as the page background or shrinking it so it can't be seen. Make sure the keywords you wish to rank high for are used frequently in the page copy but within reason.

Now that you've created good content, is it actually being crawled? Copy and paste a page's URL into a search engine to see if it has been indexed. If you've just created the page, it may take a few days to show up. Aside from age, many factors can lead to web pages not being indexed by search engines, such as duplicate content (ie. a printer-friendly version of a page might be indexed and the normal version not, or vice versa); links generated by JavaScript instead of HTML; poor site architecture (ie. using too many sub-directories); lengthy, dynamically generated URLs using special characters; and orphaned pages.

2. Choose Your Keywords Wisely

One of the first steps of SEO, this one needs to be done properly the first time or all your future efforts and promotion could end up being wasted. Start by writing down general terms that describe your products, services or web content. Use keyword research services to investigate word and phrase variations. Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery, and the Google AdWords suggestion tool are good starting points. The goal is to find those niche phrases that your target market uses to find sites just like yours and optimize your site for them. If the phrases do not get enough use by searchers, your profits from ranking for them will be low. At the same time, stay away from general terms that are tougher to rank for (ie. like "art", "computers", "business", etc.) as a great portion of the traffic will be irrelevant and you'll break the bank attaining such competitive phrases.

3. Get Others to Link to Your Site

In theory there are countless ways, some traditional and some quite innovative, to get other web sites to link to yours. In practice, it can be easier said than done. Google defines a link as it pertains to rankings and SEO as a "vote" from one site to another. The more quality votes your site receives, the greater chance you have of rankings well. If a well established site links to yours, that link carries more weight than one would from a mom & pop shop or less reputable page.

If your site has useful content and is doing something unique, you're already ahead of much of the competition. People need a reason to link to your site, as very few will do it out of the goodness of their heart. Trading links can work, but link exchange networks have decreased in value and won't be of much use in competitive fields. Buying links, if you haven't heard, is a big Google no-no. While entire articles could be written on this topic, here are a few popular methods of acquiring incoming links:

- issuing company press releases with a link back to your site
- submitting to reputable business directories such as Yahoo! and Business.com
- be active on related blogs by commenting and exchanging ideas
- if you have clients with web sites, ask if they would mind adding your link in a "partners" section
- participate in relevant forums and discussion boards with a link in your signature
- write and submit original articles to web publications in your field with a link in your bio
- get involved in social media and bookmarking

4. Join the Social Media Revolution

The collaboration between Internet users and the development of online communities is at an all-time high. Social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Furl, Reddit, and Technorati offer users a way to store their favorite pages and media online, and share it with others. These services also provide a way to promote your own content or create a buzz over a product or service. Creating a Myspace page or Squidoo "lens" is also a way to network and share information.

However, if your goal is to generate sales then you must offer something without the promotional hype. The reality of social media is that popularity is based almost entirely on public interest. If your information or media isn't unique or of interest to anyone, you cannot force success using social media communities.

The key to using social media and bookmarking sites to your advantage is to not be shy. Network with other users, bookmark and share useful content, create eye-catching titles for your entries, and tell your friends and co-workers to vote on content you have on these sites.

These four points are a general guideline to follow for SEO. Search engine optimization experts and firms are a good outsourcing option in competitive markets, while the DIY attitude can yield great results for web site owners with smaller marketing budgets. If you're in the latter group, hopefully this helps get you started.

About the Author: John Metzler has held executive positions in the search engine marketing industry since 2001. He is the Founder of FreshPromo, a Canadian-based SEO firm and updates his blog regularly.

Meta Tags Can Help Your Organic Search Results

It is widely believed in the search engine optimization community that the title tag is the most important on-page element for obtaining good search engine rankings. Despite this belief, it is amazing how many websites do not include title tags at all on their pages or use non-descriptive title tags such as YourDomain.com or just the word "Homepage". Although not thought to be as important, the meta description also plays in important role in obtaining organic traffic. Not surprisingly, many websites fail to include meta descriptions on many or all of their pages.

Loading up the title tag on a web page with relevant keywords and phrases will help that page rank better in the search engine results pages when someone queries those words and phrases. It is also important to keep in mind that most search engines display the title tag in their results as the linkable element. Most search engines will bold keywords in the title if those keywords are used in the active query. This draws the user’s attention to those listings and further increases the chances of a click through.

Before you add every keyword related to your industry into your title tags, you should know that Google will currently only display up to 66 characters in their listings and Yahoo 120 (note: these numbers can change at any time). Also, if the title looks spam to you, it probably also looks like spam to the search engine. If you limit your title tag to less than 120 characters and keep the keyword relevant with the content of the page, it is unlikely that you will have any page penalization problems. Also, consider putting your most important keywords near the beginning of the title tag. As an online retailer, this means putting the brand or manufacturer of the product that you are selling as one of the first keywords in your product detail title tag. Brands are widely searched and ranking well for them can be a boon. Finally, as another best practice, make sure each page on your site has a unique title.

Meta Descriptions are often, but not always used under the linkable portion in the search engine results pages. As with the title tag, it’s a good idea to include many relevant keywords in the description as those are also often bolded by the search engines. Putting compelling copy in your meta descriptions can also increase the likelihood that your result will be clicked. As with title tags, make sure every page on your site has a unique description.

Title tags and meta descriptions are often overlooked because they don’t display in the content area of the browser. Although they are just one piece of a well optimized page, taking the time to add them can have a profound impact on the amount of organic traffic you receive from search engines!