SEO, Tips & Strategies BlogSEO blog, regularly updated with the latest search industry news, articles, tips and strategies

When doing business on the Internet, there are many ways in which you can make a website successful. Although the look is important, fancy websites don’t make sales.

There is much more to creating a quality website. To make it successful, you must create a website that will be of interest to your target market and make them want to visit it over and over again. In addition, it should lead your visitors to take the action you desire, such as joining your mailing list, or making a purchase.

Selecting a Website’s Niche

The first step toward how to make a website successful, will be to target it for one specific niche. For example, if you are designing a website about wine, everything within it should relate to wine.

Selecting a Website’s Keyword Phrase

You must also select the most relevant keyword phrase for each webpage. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your webpage. For example, if your webpage is about ‘making wine,’ your best keyword phrase would be ‘wine making.’ You should use your keyword phrase a few times within your webpage, as this will enable the search engines to determine what the website is about. This is a very important step to make a website successful.

Using HTML Heading Tags

When you begin writing your content, it is very important that you use the HTML H1 heading tag with your main title at the top of your webpage. In addition, use th HTML H2 tags for your sub-titles. This is very important, as some search engines place relevance on the text displayed with heading tags.

As the default text for the H1 heading tag is very large, you may want to use CSS style sheets to display the heading tags in the font style and size you prefer.

Using META Tags Within a Webpage

Another step to help make a website successful is to include META tags between the HEAD tags of your webpage. META tags help the search engines to know what keywords are relevant to the webpage. They are also used to tell the search engines what the webpage is about. Many search engines will display this description within the search results.

Backgrounds and Text

It is always best to display a webpage with a white background and black text, as this will make the text easy to read. Distracting backgrounds will make the text hard to read. A good rule of thumb is to just use common sense and keep it simple. This alone is a great way to help make a website successful.

Animated Graphics

If you’re using animated graphics, it is important that you use them sparingly. Graphics that continually flash are VERY annoying and may prevent your visitors from returning to your website in the future.

Navigational Links

It is very important to include good navigational links on every page. They should be displayed at the top, bottom, left or right side of your webpage. In addition, your visitors should be able to get to any webpage within your website within four clicks.

Webpage Layout

Always be consistent with your design. This is a very important step to help make a website successful. The layout for should be the same on each page. If you make it different, your visitors will become confused. In addition, it will make your website appear to be unprofessional. Your design should include the same layout, logo, and navigation setup on each page.

Spelling and Grammar

Always make sure you proof read and spell check your webpages for errors. It is also very important that it doesn’t have any broken images or links.

Important Webpages

When you launch your website, it is very important that you include the following webpages:

About
The ‘About’ page is used to tell your visitors about you and/or your company.

Privacy
The ‘Privacy’ page is used to let your visitors know what you do with their personal information, such as their email address.

Terms and Conditions
The ‘Terms and Conditions’ page should be displayed on your website for your protection.

Site Map
A ‘Site Map’ is used to help the search engines index your website more easily.

You can learn more about all of these pages by doing a search through your favorite search engine. They are very important and will help make a website successful.

Website Interactivity

Another way to make a website successful is to make it interactive. This can be done by including a targeted forum that compliments your website, a form in which they can subscribe to an ezine, a feedback form to enable them to give their opinion, or an informative blog in which visitors can comment.

Web Browsers and Screen Resolutions

When you begin designing your webpage, it is HIGHLY recommended that you install the most popular web browsers on your computer. This will enable you to see how your website will display in different browsers. You will find that it looks great in one browser and terrible in another. It would be wise to design your website to display properly in Firefox and then it should display properly in Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.

It is also important that you view your website through different screen resolutions. You can either open your webpage in your browser and then change your computer’s screen resolution, or there are resources online that you can visit, such as Any Browser, to test your website.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you can begin to make a website successful in no time.

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About the Author: Shelley Lowery - If you want to learn how to make a website successful, visit Web-Source.net for a wealth of free website design tutorials, video tutorials, HTML codes, JavaScript codes, CSS codes, tips, tools and resources.

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Web readers may be a difficult bunch, they may take a while to digest information and they may need convincing of every single point you deliver but they are essential. They can become long term, loyal customers, as long as you give them what they want.

Writing for the Internet is a different skill to writing for paper print or paper publications. Website readers digest smaller amounts of information in less time when compared to reading from paper.

This means that website content needs to be very well organised, concise, well formatted, and appealing. Throw in the proper use of search engine keywords, a powerful Call To Action (CTA), your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), and the natural scepticism of web users and it’s easy to see why many website owners use professional content writers.

1 - Use An Inverted Pyramid Style Of Writing

The inverted pyramid style of writing means getting your point across early in the text. Web readers are an impatient bunch and they need to know that the page they’re reading is relevant. Include a summary or conclusion of the page’s main points at the beginning of the text and then elaborate on this as you progress.

2 - Make It Concise

As well as being impatient, web readers aren’t able to digest and process information as well on a computer screen as they are on paper. There are masses of studies and numerous sets of data giving statistics on this, but the general point is that basic pages need to be between a third and a half of the length they would be on paper. Try to aim for 300-500 words for web pages, with longer pages for technical articles, newsletters, and other web based publications.

3 - Use Headers And Sub-Headers

Headers and sub-headers not only enable you, as the writer, to properly structure the page; they also enable the reader to scan through and find the information that is most pertinent to them. Don’t try anything too clever with your headers and do ensure that they are relevant and informational.

4 - Use Bullets And Lists

Bullets and lists are another method of enabling readers to quickly navigate around a page and grab the most important information. Many readers will simply scroll down a page and if no information jumps out at them then they won’t read anything. Prevent these readers from clicking away from your website by offering bite sized chunks of information.

5 - Use Simple Language

Another area where statistics and figures differ is in the comprehension level of website readers. No matter which figures you listen to, though, one point is clear - we simply can’t process information as well when reading from a computer. Use simple language, avoid jargon that isn’t necessary or clearly defined, and engage your readers using language that everybody can understand.

6 - Use Short Paragraphs And Shorter Sentences

A paragraph should contain text relating to a single, simple idea. When you reach the conclusion of that idea, you should also reach the end of that paragraph. Paragraphs should contain no more than 70-80 words where possible. If a paragraph requires fewer words then make it shorter. The same goes for sentences.

7 - Make It Easy To Scan

Shorter paragraphs, more concise pages, and good headers make a page easy to scan. So too do bullets and lists. Add formatting such as bold and italicised text, quotes, and even hyperlinked text to make the page easier to scan. Remember to use a degree of caution, however, because a page that consists of different formatting techniques will be very difficult to read and understand. Many readers will simply close your page and move on.

8 - Write Objectively

We’ve already discussed how Internet users are impatient and find it difficult to digest information; they’re also a highly sceptical bunch that will take convincing of virtually anything you have to say. Use objective language and avoid the use of too much marketing fluff. Avoid exaggerated claims such telling readers that yours is the best product in the world and instead show them why - convince them to come to that conclusion on their own and you will enjoy better results for your effort.

9 - One Idea Per Paragraph, One Subject Per Page

A single paragraph should contain a single idea and a single page should cover one topic. If a page is becoming too wordy because it includes information on other subjects, then break it down and hyperlink to those other pages. For longer pages remember the bookmark function and use it wisely to help readers navigate their way around your site and take in all of the information that you have to offer.

Giving Visitors What They Want

Web readers may be a difficult bunch, they may take a while to digest information and they may need convincing of every single point you deliver but they are essential. They can become long term, loyal customers, as long as you give them what they want and that’s why we love them so much. If you don’t have the time or the resource to write your own compelling and effective website content then consider using professional copywriters.

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About the Author: Matt Jackson - WebWiseWords offers a full range of copywriting services. They can provide affordable and high quality SEO copywriting services so that you can enjoy the benefits of compelling website content without breaking the bank.

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If you aren’t yet aware of its meaning, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Simple enough, but just what is SEO and what is it for? This is a more complex matter.

Search engine optimization refers to a number of different techniques used for building websites and the content on these sites to improve their placident in the search engine results pages.

The idea of SEO is to make your website more visible to web users who search for content with search engines (which is essentially everyone who uses the World Wide Web at all).

If your website is a personal page meant primarily for yourself and perhaps a small number of family members and friends, it may not be all that important to you to have a site which is optimized.

However, if your website is business oriented, it matters a great deal.

Think of it this way: if your business decided to stop being listed in the phone book, took the signs and awnings down and stopped advertising, how successful would you be at attracting new business?

Search engines have for many largely replaced the function once performed by local phone directories.

In order to attract (and even retain) business, you need to have a high profile where your customers are likely to see you - and these days, this place is online.

It once was that if people couldn’t find you in the phone book, your business was in serious trouble. Now, of course the question is how easy it is for people to find your website.

You may have a great looking website and even use the URL in your printed marketing materials and advertising campaigns; but not everyone is going to see your advertisident in the paper.

People tend to look at web sites when they’re actually in need of something and even if a potential customer has seen your ads, it’s not at all certain they’ll remember to go to your site immediately when they’re looking for what you offer.

Instead, your potential customers are using search engines - which is why your business may need some help from a professional SEO consultant to ensure that consumers will find you when they really are looking for you.

One of the things we should look at first here is what the search engines actually see when their crawlers come to your site.

The search engines don’t know (or care) about your site’s design in terms of graphics (though they will read the alternate text for these images - if you don’t know about this important elident of web design, an SEO consultant can help you with this).

All the search engines see when they look at your site is text and nothing but text. For this reason, sites which are entirely Flash-based are not generally recommended from an SEO perspective (many visitors don’t like this either).

What the search engine crawlers are looking at on your site is the actual text contained on your website as well as the information contained in what is known as the headers of your site’s HTML, most notably your title tags.

These tell the search engine crawlers what your site is about - if you don’t include these (or use an entirely graphics or animation based site), the search engines really can’t tell what your site is supposed to be about.

This can be fatal to your site, as it basically assures that no one will be able to find you with a search engine query.

As for how the search engines determine page ranking, this is a much more complex question. The short answer is relevance: but the relevance of any given website is calculated in a number of ways.

The exact nature of the algorithms used by each search engine is different and each is closely guarded proprietary information - to further complicate matters, these algorithms are constantly evolving.

However, there are certain things which the SEO experts have managed to figure out through analysis and reverse engineering of search results and websites which are universally applicable.

This is what enables an SEO consultant to look over a website and suggest changes to the site to increase its visibility in terms of the search engines.

The alterations which can improve a site’s search engine rankings include fine tuning the copy on the site to make it tune with the site’s content, its meta tags or especially popular search terms which are relevant to the content.

There are other changes which will improve a site’s search engine ranking which are not visible to visitors to the site.

These are changes which affect what the search engine crawlers see when they visit the site and help this to more accurately determine what the site is about. There are yet other SEO techniques which your site should avoid using.

What should you avoid?

Let’s take a look at a hypothetical scenario. Suppose your kitchen wares business has a website which is doing well in the results for tea kettles, frying pans and the like.

However, you’d like to further increase traffic - how about trying to rank high in the search engine results for some other non-kitchen related search terms?

This may help to increase traffic to your site, but there are reasons why everyone doesn’t do this. If SEO really worked like that, every site on the web would optimize their content for whatever the most popular searches happened to be.

There are many websites which do this simply to get you to their site by any means. This is one of the several different SEO techniques which are considered “search engine spamming” and should be avoided.

If you’re considering working with a professional search engine optimization firm, you should avoid any company who uses this technique or any of the others which follow:

* Keyword stuffing. * Misleading redirects and link/URL cloaking. * Duplicating content between pages of a website. * Misspelling words and names commonly used as search terms. * The use of unrelated links (also known as link farming). * Or for that matter, any other technique aimed at fooling the search engines.

These “black hat” SEO methods can work as a means of generating traffic, but they only work for so long before the search engines (and the public) catch on.

Once search engines figure out what you’re up to, they often respond by un-indexing your site, making it impossible for anyone to find you with that search engine.

Don’t think you won’t get caught either; the major search engines encourage users to report these deceptive tactics. You can get better and more lasting results with ethical SEO methods; and without having to worry about having your site blacklisted.

Is Your Site Doing Well Enough In Search Results?

Unless you’re already in the top couple of results in the major engines, chances are you’d like to do better regardless of where your site stands at present.

As any expert search engine optimization consultant will tell you, SEO is a process, not a single task. It’s something that you’ll likely have to continue working on as your site slowly but steadily makes its way up the rankings.

This organic SEO approach is the most effective and will get you to where you want to be sooner or later; the most important thing is to ensure that your business’ website is optimized for search engines.

Failing to implident good SEO practices is one nearly certain way to set yourself up for a fall. It is much like the unadvertised, unlisted and unmarked business we discussed earlier.

People who are ready and willing to do business with you will pass you by, unaware that your site even exists. Whether or not to use SEO as an integral part of your marketing strategy isn’t even a question anymore - the question is how you’ll go about it.

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About the Author: John S. Britsios is a Web Architect & Senior SEO Consultant, specializing in Web Content Accessibility, Usability Testing, Search Engine Optimization & Internet Marketing.

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Website Redesign? Be Sure to Plan Ahead

At some point in time, every service provider takes a look at his or her website and decides it’s time for a redesign.

And, to be perfectly honest, a website redesign can be more difficult and time-consuming than building a completely new site from the ground up. Not only is there a need to create a new design, but you will also be dealing with moving and renaming pages and other files, which puts traffic and page rank at risk.

That’s why it’s extremely important to have a solid plan in place before the redesign process takes place.

Start by analyzing what you have.

The first thing we need to do is review each and every file at the current site. Depending on the age and size of the current site, this step can often take several weeks.

We catalog each piece of content at the site, which includes pages, articles, posts, comments, images, videos, audios, free reports, digital downloads, forms, scripts, products, autoresponders, newsletters, plug-ins, etc. We simply list every asset at the site.

Next, decide what you’ll do with it all.

Now that the list of assets has been created, it’s time to come up with a plan for what stays and what goes. Look at every item and decide if it will be added to the new site? Will it be moved to a different directory? Will the URL change? Will the asset be renamed? Do any of the pages require new Meta tags?

Pay special attention to your scripts and forms, do they refer to a certain asset that you wanted to discard? Does a form point to a certain thank you page? Make a notation of what will stay and what will go.

Thirdly, list all of your exceptions.

Before completely eliminating an item, you’ll want to investigate your off-site assets. Are any of your active PPC campaigns referring to a particular landing page? Are your linking partners linking to a page that will get renamed?

Take a look at your traffic analytics to determine which off-site sources are driving traffic and exactly where they’re sending that traffic. You might want to keep these pages as-is, disallow them in your robots text file to avoid any duplicate content issues, and contact your traffic sources about the change. Keep the items live until you are 100% sure there is no traffic being directed to them.

And finally, create your redirects.

As your new pages are being created, be sure to replace the old page with a 301 redirect. This will notify the search engines that the asset has been permanently moved. Eventually, they will no longer refer to the original link but instead, they will pass its ranking to the new page.

The way you execute your 301 redirect will depend on the changes you’ve made and the hosting platform you use. If you’ve moved your entire website, as-is, to a new url, the easiest redirect is through your htaccess file. As long as you’ve kept the site structure intact, simply replace the htaccess file at the original site with a 301 redirect to the new site.

In the case of a redesign that uses the same URL, you will need to redirect each page individually. For that, you would add a separate line for each page into your htaccess file.

If you don’t see your htaccess file, make sure your ftp program is set up to view hidden files. And if you definitely don’t have an htaccess, simply create one in your text editor, like notepad. (Do not use a word publisher like Microsoft Word to create your htaccess file.) When you save the file, be sure to name it DOT htaccess and not htaccess DOT txt.

Personally, I prefer a page-side redirect using PHP. In this case, you would replace the original html file with a file containing the redirect code in its header.

Save this with the old file name and ftp in ascii mode to the same directory the original file was in. Then ftp the new file to the new directory. Anyone who tries to access the original page will be immediately taken to the new page, and the search engines will be notified that any “points” awarded to the original page should now be passed to the new page.

But there is a caveat. If the new page doesn’t “deserve” the points of the old page, it will not automatically be favored with a great SE ranking forever and ever simply because you used a 301 redirect. You will need to continually maintain your new pages just as you did your original pages.

You can also use ASP to create your redirects by adding the ASP code to your original file’s header, similar to the PHP redirect. And again, save this as the original file and ftp it to your server.

It’s true that when you make changes to your website, especially a major change like an entire site redesign, you should expect some changes to your traffic and rankings. But if you plan ahead and map out your process, you can keep these changes to a minimum.

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About the Author: Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her free Can-Spam checklist and free email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

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There are a lot of ways that you can improve your site’s page ranking in search engines, unfortunately, not all of them are good.

Some people employ certain methods in acquiring a high page rank in search engines, even if these are considered to be deceitful in the sense that they are designed to trick the search engines - one of these methods is actually duplicating web content.

What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content in SEO is actually any web content that is considered to be similar to another site. Search engines have actually implemented new filters specifically to monitor these types of deceitful attempts to improve site’s search engine page rankings.

A lot of people think that by creating multiple but similar replicas of their web pages or content, that they will be able to improve their site’s page rankings since they will be able to get multiple listings for their site.

Since search engines are now monitoring these types of trickery, sites using duplicate content can actually end up getting banned from search engine indexes instead of improving their ranking.

What are considered as duplicate content?

There are a couple of duplicate content types that are being rampantly utilized by a lot of people, each one a bit different in their use, but all of them employed for the same purpose, which is to trick search engines to get better page rankings.

One way of getting duplicate content is by having very similar websites or identical web pages on different sub-domains or domains that offer basically the same content. This may include landing or door pages aside from the content, so make sure that you avoid using this if you don’t want your site to become vulnerable to search engines’ duplicate content filter.

Another method of creating duplicate content is by simply taking content from another website or page and reorganizing it to make it appear dissimilar to its original form, though it is actually the same.

Product descriptions from many eCommerce sites are actually being utilized by other sites as well. Other sites simply copy the product description of manufacturer’s utilized by other competitive markets as well. And add the fact that the product name, as well as the name of artist, manufacturer, writer or creator would be included, a significant amount of content would show up on your page. Although this is much harder to spot, it is still considered to be duplicate content, or spam.

Distribution of copied articles by other sites other than the one that distributed the original article can also be considered to be a duplicate content.

Unfortunately, although some search engines still deem the site where the original article came from as relevant, some however, do not.

How do search engines filter duplicate content?

Search engines filter for duplicate content by using the same means for analyzing and indexing page ranking for sites, and that is through the use of crawlers or robots. These robots or crawlers go through different websites and catalogues these sites by reading and saving information to their database.

Once this is done, these robots then analyzes and compares all the information it has taken from one website to all the others that It has visited by using certain algorithms to determine if the site’s content is relevant, and if it can be considered as a duplicate content or spam.

How to avoid duplicate content?

Although you may not have any intentions to try and deceive search engines to improve your site’s page ranking, your site might still get flagged as having duplicate content.

One way that you can avoid this from happening is by checking yourself if there are duplicate contents of your page. Just make sure that you avoid too much similarities with another page’s content for this can still appear as duplicate content to some filters, even if it isn’t considered to be spam.

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About the Author: Craig Edmonson - The Google Top 10 offers SEO Services to U.S. based companies. Stop by for a free web site analysis.

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Many new and even seasoned internet marketers find it hard to stay focused on their tasks.

When you work online it can be nearly impossible to get anything accomplished when you run across new opportunities, are tempted to visit websites, watch videos, check email, browse forums, check your stats, listen to tele-seminars, browse Google and do other distracting online activities. Not to mention other offline distractions.

Here are a couple things you can do to diminish distractions.

1. Work alone in a quiet space

If you have young children you’ll understand how crucial it is to work in a quiet space where other people can’t distract you. It seems just about when you’re ready to start working you’re barraged by requests to do something or help with something.

Now, there’s nothing more important than my family but when you need to work you must get down to work.

Go to a quiet space and carve out a solid amount of time where you can be productive. If someone else is in the room with you while you’re working you run the possibility of getting distracted.

2. Throw your TV out the window

That’s right. Turn it off and get rid of it. This will curb your curiosity of wondering what’s on TV. When you’re tempted to see what’s on you tell yourself “well, I’ll only watch a little bit.”

Before you knew it your watching an hour or more of TV and aren’t getting any word done. This can also be a form of psychologically avoiding tasks you need to get done - procrastination. Procrastination is a surefire way to make sure nothing gets done.

If you find yourself doing this, remember you can always record what you miss on Tivo, or better yet, you can probably find the shows you miss on online.

3. Get Rid of Internet Distractions

While it may be fun to look online for the latest viral videos, check you stats, check email, browse forums, you can literally waste hours doing these activities and check your favorite social networking site. These activities don’t get you closer to your goal.

Force yourself not to do any of your favorite internet time wasters until you’ve gotten some real work done and can see actual results from your real efforts.

If you don’t see results don’t give up and give into temptation, try again and again. When you see results then reward yourself with your favorite activity.

If you don’t actually have the will power to prevent yourself from engaging in your favorite online activities there is actually software which will block these activities for you.

By implementing at least one of these strategies you’ll find your productivity going up and your goals will become much closer than you thought.

About the Author: Bill Thompson is an internet marketer and writer. Discover how Niche FAQ gets the niche research done for you so you can have more time to do your favorite activities.

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Building a great landing page should be on top of your priority list if you want your website visitors transformed into customers.

While a great looking website can grab the attention of your visitors, a strong landing page will keep them involved and get them to buy your products/services.

Wikipedia defines a landing page as:

The page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.

Wikipedia’s definition sums it up nicely but there is certainly more to a great landing page then relevant and keyword rich content. Here’s 10 things that you should be looking at when optimizing a landing page:

- Relevant Content

A landing page’s content should be directly related to organic search results, PPC campaign, anchor text in inbound links and any other targeted inbound advertising, online and offline. If people don’t get what they expect, they will be more likely to leave.

- Multiple Landing Pages

A landing page shouldn’t necessarily be your homepage. In many instances a homepage is a good landing page. However, for more targeted traffic and better results, you want a landing page to be focused on specific offer and specific call for action. To accomplish this, a given website should have multiple landing pages. Create some deep link landing pages that will focus on specific offer and your conversion rate will be higher.

- Focus on Functionality

More and more visitors seem to judge the professionalism and credibility of a site by its design. To satisfy this, many website owners concentrate on the design aspect instead of focusing on its functionality. A well-designed landing page is essentially worthless if the prospect can’t accomplish anything. While I wouldn’t suggest skimping on the design, it shouldn’t be your priority. Focus on the exact steps you want your visitor to take and design a page with that in mind.

- Call To Action

You got visitors to your landing page, now direct them to take action. Make it clear and highly noticeable without overwhelming your audience. Whether it’s a sign-up form or a “buy now” button, make it the focus of your page.

- Send a Clear Message

Keep your landing page clean and clutter free so your visitors stay focused on your message. Emphasize the biggest reasons that they should carry out the applicable call to action with larger text, contrasting colors, images. Make it easier for them to scan the content by using lists and getting right to the point.

- Offer Incentive

Bribing your visitors with freebies and samples is a proven method of enticing them to sign up. Offer more than your competition but don’t sell yourself short either. Provide a list of reasons why your offer is better and what exactly the visitor can expect. Provide references and testimonials.

- Make Visitors Stay

Avoid sending your visitors to another page unless it is absolutely necessary. That includes any internal navigation as well as external banners. If you remove all distractions and limit navigation options, you stand a better chance of keeping your visitors around.

- Simple is Better

Make it easy for your visitors to complete the action you want them to. Less confusion and decision making for your visitor means better conversions rate for your landing page. Don’t offer multiple choices and throw in optional extras. Focus on the offer the page was created for.

- Power of Freebies

Everyone likes free offers. They are hard to resist and can be a powerful conversion tool. Whether a call to action is free or something free is received as a result of carrying out a call to action, it certainly doesn’t hurt. If your competition charges for something and you offer it for free, you’ll win the customer. Remember, just because you make a free offer doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be quality.

- Testing

In a recent post “How to Turn Website Visitors into Buyers”, I’ve stressed how important testing is in finding out what your visitors like. Testing various text, call to action forms, layouts will give you true idea what produces the best results as far as conversion.

Using a tool like Google’s Website Optimizer you can easily monitor the conversion rate, bounce rate, and tons of other useful metrics found in most modern day web analytics apps. Using these metrics you can easily figure out which version will be your optimal page, one that maximizes the results.

Creating a successful and effective landing page takes a lot of work but should be the focus for anyone involved with a website. Whether you are a website owner, web designer, web developer or a web marketing specialist you must be aware of the components that comprise a solid landing page. After all this can mean website’s success or failure.

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About the Author: Joanna Colek is the owner of Joanna Ciolek Web Design Studio, based in North Denver, Colorado. She offers affordable, custom and effective web design services to small business owners.

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Usually when someone contacts me online, one of the most frequent questions I get asked is this: “How do I find a good web host?” or “Which web host do you use?”

This is one of those essential things you will need in order to earn that online income. You will need a web site and you will need a web host - somewhere to place that web site.

Sure there are countless marketers who work without a site but most have at least one main site which acts as their online calling card; where people can find them on the web. Of course, you can always use the social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter… but that’s like operating your office out of Starbucks!

Instead, a well designed site is just more professional and business like. It also means you’re serious about your online business.

Picking a good web host is not easy. I have had numerous different web hosts over the years. Most of them have been very good and served their purpose, but I have had some bad experiences too - what long term webmaster or marketer hasn’t? Something always goes wrong eventually, especially if you have a lot of sites and many different web hosts.

Sometimes having a web host can be downright scary. Several years ago, the web host that I had my main site on was first sold and then went bankrupt. One day your site is running fine and the next day the web host is completely gone. Shut down. Your site and all your files completely gone. Vanished. Your host can’t be reached. Total blackout!

Fortunately, I had my site backed up on several systems and since that experience I always back my sites up on several computers and I go even further by copying them onto DVDs should those computers crash. If you have a site, I always suggest you back up your site files and make it redundant. The very worst can happen to you.

Overall quality and good 24/7 support should be your first objectives in choosing a good web host. You want a site that’s fast, easy to use, rarely down and has good support that you can reach at all times, should something go wrong.

You need to check exactly what features your web host is offering and for what price:

- How much storage space?
- Daily traffic limit or transfer?
- Email system? How many accounts…
- What type of server Linux or Windows?
- How many other sites will be sharing your IP address?
- Do You need SSL or a secure site?
- Are sites/files backed up? How often?
- What are the support hours?
- And of course the Price?

But don’t always try to get the cheapest price hosting, keep in mind, you always get what you pay for. A cheap web host won’t save you money if it’s a poor service and your site is always going down. So don’t always pick the cheapest web host.

Match up your hosting service with the type of site you will be running; a simple HTML site will have or make simple demands on your hosting service. So a shared hosting service may be quite adequate to meet your hosting needs. For SEO reasons, you should always check the location of your site, I have found which country your site is hosted in, plays a role in your rankings, especially in Google.

However, if you have a site that’s extremely interactive with forums, discussion groups, get large bursts of traffic or you’re running a lot of server-side scripts and programs - then you may need a more robust hosting service to meet your needs.

In this case, you might need a dedicated server to handle just your site. Many web hosts offer this service and it’s worth looking into if you have a site with extreme amounts of traffic or if you’re running forums, affiliate programs, email services… from your site. Most of my own sites are very simple and I have them on many different web hosts. Mainly because of my own experiences, I just don’t want to have all my sites on one host… the old “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” reasoning.

At the moment I am quite pleased with all my web hosts… many of my sites are on GoDaddy and I find them OK for simple sites like mine. I also find it convenient because they are also a domain registry so I can easily use them to buy my domains. Although many experts suggest you should always keep your domain registration separate from your hosting service because if your host should suddenly vanish, it is only a simple matter of moving your site to a different host. If your host controls your domain, this can be a major problem. Always keep control of your domain in your own hands, but you probably already knew that.

Another web host I use is Bluehost which is very good, can’t remember the last time my site was down. They are very popular with around a million sites and my only concern is that they may become too popular and their services will be spread too thin. However, I have had very few problems with them and you can always reach their support.

I also have a site with Ken Evoy’s SBI (Site Build It), but I created that one mainly to get access to the enormous resources connected with SBI. It is slightly more expensive than some of the ones listed above, but SBI is an overall online marketing system that in my opinion can’t be equaled on the web. Well, perhaps the Warriors group could give them a run for their money, but it’s the community of like-minded webmasters with SBI which makes it special. They are always ready and willing to help you out, doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced pro or a complete newcomer. Several years ago, I took a very close first-hand look at the hosting service provided by SBI. You can find my opinions/review on SBI located in the resource box below.

There are countless webhosts you can choose from when picking a web host. But do your homework, check around to the different forums and see how everyone is rating the web hosts they are using. First-hand experiences are the best judge of whether or not a web host is good and reliable.

Although moving a site from one web host to another can be a real pain, especially if you have a large scale site, but if you’re not totally satisfied with a web host and are having serious problems - simply change your hosting. Just make sure you’re not going from bad to worst.

Still, finding a good quality web host will be a major chore, no matter how you look at it.

Perhaps, in the final analysis, nothing beats checking with your friends and fellow webmasters you trust. Ask them which hosts they’re using and if they’re satisfied with it. Nothing beats first-hand experiences when it comes to choosing a web host. Just make sure you’re comparing oranges to oranges, that is: make sure you have similar site requirements as your webmaster friends. If you both have similar type sites, then finding a good quality web host can be as easy as having a friendly chat over a cup of coffee.

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About the Author: Titus Hoskins is a full-time professional online marketer who has numerous niche websites. Here’s a review of Ken Evoy’s popular marketing/hosting system: Site Build It Review For the latest web marketing tools try: Internet Marketing Tools.

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For you to become successful in doing businesses online, you should be able to constantly enhance your knowledge and skills particularly with regards to search engine optimization and Internet marketing.

It is because the world of web or the Internet itself and its corresponding aspects such as the search engines and the like revolutionizes in a continuous and sometimes varying pace.

If you can’t cope with certain changes which the search engines provide, then you might have a hard time competing with other marketers who do things well.

The usual and most convenient thing that some Internet marketers do is hire a “SEO specialist” or have somebody who knows much about the Internet, online marketing, search engine optimization and many other things concerning making money online work for you.

Although this may prove useful and handy to some marketers, it also has some disadvantages. The worst part is, there is a possibility that your business will be torn into pieces or that your hired specialist will use your valuable information against you at your own expense.

Remember, the competition in world of Internet marketing is tighter than you can ever imagine. How long will you rely on the service of other people when you can actually do things on your own?

It’s not really that you should never depend on other people; because you can’t successfully make it to the top without the aid of others especially your network friends or contacts. But aren’t you even interested on learning how things work? Haven’t you ever thought of spending some time working on your own online business and see how far it may lead you?

You should know that it is more fulfilling to see your business reach the top all because of your own applied methods.

It is true that starting your own online business can take so much of your time and effort thus you need the help of other people especially the experts. Just bear in mind that you can never depend on them for a lifetime.

You need to learn how to do things on your own, find ways with your sole effort and time as well as practice what you can gather or learn from other successful online marketers. To become one of those expert marketers who can easily and effectively maximize the visibility of their website or gain more profits for their businesses is the main reason why you should go for an Internet marketing class or participate in SEO trainings.

There are lots of Internet marketing courses offered by some of the most prominent people in the world of SEO as well as Internet marketing. You can even find free Internet marketing courses.

Learning from such courses especially trainings which are comprehensively discussing search engine optimization can actually benefit you in ways you never thought possible. There is no need to worry about boredom since seo training videos will be provided making it easier and fun to absorb each and every important detail.

Deciding to go for an Internet marketing class should be done as soon as you have chosen the Internet to market your business. This way, you will learn the basics of effective marketing until such time that you’re ready to be equipped with the advance knowledge and skills.

After undergoing seo trainings or Internet marketing classes, you can guarantee yourself and your business the success that you’ve always wanted.

With the information and methods that you can learn from efficient, comprehensive and updated Internet marketing courses, it will be a no-sweat doing businesses online.

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About the Author: Maurice Manhattan - Taking part in an Internet marketing class is one of the booming and beneficial trends nowadays. So if you want to effectively promote your online business and stay on top of the search engines, then do your best in finding the right and most comprehensive yet free Internet marketing course.

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Following in the footsteps of Rand Fishkin and Guy Kawasaki, I decided to come up with my own list of don’ts.

There is no shortage of don’ts when it comes to SEO copywriting. It seems this niche got off to a rough start many years ago when early comers somehow misconstrued the core principles of the trade. Allow me to elaborate on how not to write SEO copy.

1. Don’t shove as many keyphrases into the copy as humanly possible.

It’s not about the sheer volume of search terms you include. Yes, Google and other engines should be able to follow what the page is about. Yes, engines are looking to match a searcher’s query with search engine optimized content on your web pages, but which pages land at the top is decided through a series of calculations far more complex than any simple ratio. When you overload copy with keyphrases you sacrifice quality and user experience.

2. Don’t lose site of balance.

If SEO copywriting isn’t about the percentage of keywords within the copy, then what is it about? Balance. You have two audiences with SEO copywriting: the search engines and your site visitors. But surprisingly, the balance doesn’t come with serving both masters well. The balance comes in how much you cater to the engines. You see, your site visitors always come first.

However, if you write with too little focus on the engines, you won’t see good rankings. If you put too much focus on the engines, you’ll start to lose your target audience. Balance… always balance.

3. Don’t let someone else choose the keywords.

If keyword research isn’t a service you offer, an SEO firm, keyword specialist or some other professional that your client hires will have to conduct the research. Don’t just accept keyphrases these folks toss your way. Ask to see the entire list with recommendations as to which terms would be best strategically. Then you, as the professional writer, can decide which will also work best within the copy.

4. Don’t sacrifice flow for numbers.

This is a follow-up to number three and is a major issue with bad SEO copywriting. SEOs or clients sometimes insist on using hacked-up search phrases that simply don’t work in a normal sentence. An example? “Candies samples free.” Many copywriters will just grin and bear it, sacrificing quality and flow for the sake of competitive values or other numbers. The result is often some obnoxious sentence like, “If you’re looking for candies samples free, you’ve come to the right place!” Forcing a phrase into the copy at all costs never turns out well.

5. Don’t use keyphrases that don’t apply to the page.

If you operate a site about wedding receptions, don’t try to force a search term about wedding dresses into the copy just because it pulls a lot of traffic. (A) Unless you sell, alter or design wedding dresses, it won’t be applicable. (B) Even if you manage to get the page ranked well for the phrase [wedding dresses], once the visitor clicks to your site and realizes you have nothing to do with wedding dresses, they will leave. It’s a waste of time and effort and it creates a poor user experience.

6. Don’t use misspellings and correct spellings on the same page.

I fully understand that the misspellings of keyphrases can be valuable search terms. However, to mix correct spellings and misspellings within the same page of copy looks like you’ve got a bunch of typos in the content. It’s just not professional. Some writers will go for the old, “We rent limousines (sometimes spelled limosenes) for the most affordable prices in town.” I don’t care for that approach. It’s just not natural. Would you ever see brochure or newspaper copy that reads that way? I think not.

7. Don’t use keyphrases the exact same way every time.

This is how we end up with horrible SEO copy that sounds like a 4th grader wrote it. (See #4.) There are lots of ways to use keywords in copy, not just one. In order to sound natural, you have to get creative with your keyphrase use. One way is to break up phrases using punctuation. Since search engines don’t pay attention to basic punctuation marks, you can easily write something using the search term [real estate Hawaii] that reads like this: “Currently there is an impressive selection of available real estate. Hawaii listings can be…” See? “Real estate” is at the end of the first sentence and “Hawaii” is at the beginning of the second sentence. The engines ignore the period so there’s no problem.

8. Don’t use all types of search phrases for every situation.

There are many ways in which this “don’t” applies. One quick example is that of an ecommerce site. It wouldn’t be advisable to use specific, long-tail keyphrases on the home page of your site. They are much too specific in most cases and are better suited for individual product pages. Broader terms are typically best for an ecommerce home page. If you don’t understand the best applications for the various types of keywords, you’re likely to have lackluster results.

9. Don’t neglect ALT tags/image attributes.

These tags are the ones associated with images on your pages and they carry a good deal of weight especially if the image is used as a link. The ALT text counts the same as anchor text in a text-based link. Depending on a few different factors, ALT text may be a good place for those misspellings mentioned in #6.

10. Don’t forget the chain of protocol.

There’s a method to the SEO copywriting madness. The idea is not to get as many different keyphrases onto a page as possible. Just the opposite, in fact. Rather than having 12 different search terms used only one time each, you need to use two to four keyphrases (depending on the length of your copy) per page. The title, META tags, ALT tags, other coding elements and on-page copy need to support each other as far as keyphrase use goes. Your goal is to let the engines know that you have original, relevant content about a narrow topic.

Unless you have an exceptional number of back links built up, just mentioning [dark chocolate], [chocolate strawberries], [chocolate chip cookies], [chocolate cake], [chocolate desserts], [organic chocolate] and [chocolate cheesecake] once each on a web page isn’t likely to do a lot of good. Instead, pick two or three terms which are closely related and use them several times each along with mentioning them in your tags.

When you avoid making common mistakes, you’ll find your SEO copywriting flows much better, is more natural-sounding and ranks higher, too.

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About the Author: Karon Thackston - Need help with SEO copywriting? Karon has written 3 excellent books to help you learn keyword optimization techniques. Visit http://www.CopywritingCourse.com and click to the Order page for details.

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