The SEO Bible - SEO Tips, Tricks & Advice According to Webpresence!

Advertise Online WITHOUT A Website!

noreply@blogger.com (Webpresence) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:48:00 +0000

This may surprise you.. Companies & individuals can promote themselves effectively online WITHOUT a website. Of course it’s better to have one, somewhere to exhibit your wares but if you’re a small local business or new start up then budgets will be prohibitive.

Follow my tips below to generate an effective online presence without the need to have a website. It’s all FREE as well, you just need to dedicate a little time to it!

i) Google Local Business Ads
Local business ads are free and appear on Google Maps, Google, and across Google's advertising network. To find out more or to sign up please visit; http://tinyurl.com/2ho6bu

Example of Local Ad; http://tinyurl.com/cnqzmm :- the top listings labelled A-J are local Ads.

ii) Business Directories
These are simply the online versions of the major business directories such as Yell.com, thomsonlocal.com etc. You can add free listings with no need for a website.

iii) Blog Marketing
A blog is a personal or corporate website in the form of an online journal, they’re free to set up @ www.wordpress.org. You can use a blog to communicate with prospective customers & spread the word of your business.

iv) Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is the method of promoting your business through participation in social networks. Set up free profiles on the following social networking sites & interact with other users.

Twitter

Facebook

Bebo

Myspace.

Squidoo

v) Online Business Cards
Create free online ‘Business Cards’ on the following sites;

Naymz
Ziki
ClaimID
SuprGlu
LinkedIn

Avoiding SEO Scams & Pitfalls - We've all been there!

noreply@blogger.com (Webpresence) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:31:00 +0000

Lots of different companies and individuals claim they can get your website to the top of the

search engine results.. guaranteed!

The truth of the matter is that NO seo company or so called SEO consultant can guarantee natural positions in the search engines.. and I mean NO ONE! All I’m saying is there are plenty of fakers & rip-off merchants out there, just be weary when some of them promise you the world!

I’ll shut up now and let my good friend & fellow SEO expert Kevin talk you through the major SEO scams and pitfalls to avoid.. there’s no point in me reinventing the wheel is there! Not that I’d get away with it, I think people would cotton on!

Read it now - How to Avoid SEO Scams & Pitfalls by Kevin John Lewis

Thanks for the report Kev, see you for beers soon.

Lee

My Black Hat Rant!

noreply@blogger.com (Webpresence) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:18:00 +0000

Black Hat SEO works, it really does! That annoys me... immensely.

It's all well and good Google condemning black hat SEO, I just wish they acted on what they say and penalise sites that employ black hat techniques, and in real time. The unfortunate truth of the story is that they don't! Well not from recent evidence anyway. By the time they have identified these sites and applied the appropriate penalties it’s too late.. These sly competitors have ‘stolen’ your market share.

Here's us ethical SEO’ers doing everything right, doing everything to please Google.. but where is our reward? In fact we seem to be punished for our efforts as sites that employ Black hat practices rank above us, rankings they simply don't deserve.

All this said however, I still can’t condone black hat techniques.. SEO is long term, why take the risk?

Rant over!

Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Webpresence) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:24:00 +0000

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a form of internet marketing which seeks to promote a product, service or content through the participation in various social media networks.

What are the benefits?
The SMM goals will be different for every business, however most will involve some form of viral marketing to build an idea or brand awareness, increase traffic, and ultimately sell a product or service.

Social media can be a great way to have your website promoted by word-of-mouth. If you can get people to talk about and recommend your services/products to their peers, it is more powerful than any marketing you can buy.

The Killer Strategy:

1. Blog Marketing

1.1) Create a blog

1.2) Submit your blog at Technorati etc & other blog directories

1.3) Join Mybloglog

1.4) Update your blog with relevant content. Don't use your blog as a way to communicate marketing messages, instead use it to interact with your peers.

1.5) Interact with other blogs - posting comments on other relevant blogs is a very simple form of social networking. It's also a good way to get some extra visitors your site or blog. Interact, join in on conversations - don't get seen as a social spammer by visiting numerous places, dropping your name, and giving nothing back.

1.6) Micro-Blog! this is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web. The main services include Twitter, Spoink and Plurk.

2. Social Networking

2.1) Create a profile on the following social network sites;

Facebook/Facebook Business
Bebo
Myspace
Squidoo
LinkedIn (b2b only)

2.2) Interact with users, make friends and communicate!

2.3) Update your profile on a regular basis, keep it relevant and useful to your visitors. This could be a monthly top ten list, breaking news or useful advice etc.

2.4) Create niche social networks & communities on Mixx, Ning, Squidoo & Flickr.

2.5) Join MicroCommunities: they are social communities that are relevant to your business. Some examples are education.com, nowpublic.com, travbuddy.com, gardenweb.com, shoetube.com, yelp.com and care2.com (non profits). Create highly relevant and linkworthy content, research what others are writing about, and connect with the top players and influencers.

2.6) Create 'Business Cards' on the following sites;

Naymz
Ziki
ClaimID
SuprGlu
LinkedIn

2.7) Help your Prospects; Answer questions and offer advice on reference sites such as;

Yahoo Groups
Google Groups
AOL Groups
MSN Groups
Topica EMail Lists
Kaboodle Groups
Eurekster
Tribe.net
Ning

2.8) Contribute to discussions on related forums;

3. Social Bookmarking

3.1) Add attractive content to your site. The content should be humorous, controversial or helpful and may include;

Breaking news (offer your opinion!)
Guides / tutorials
Interesting stories
Pictures
Videos (submit to Youtube, Tagged & Google Videos)
Statistics

3.2) Bookmark your new content: on the main social bookmarking sites as below (amongst others).

Del.icio.us
StumbleUpon
LinkedIn
Digg
Reddit

3.3) Give something back - Bookmark other useful resources

4. Onpage Social Media Optimisation

4.1) Add an 'Email a Friend' link to all of your content pages.

4.2) Add an RSS Feed - RSS allows people to be notified every time new articles are added to your website so they can keep up to date with your content. Ask your developer to create some RSS code for your website and then put a link on all of your pages to the RSS code page. The link should be a small orange rectangle with the letters RSS in white.

4.3) Publish your RSS feeds at Feedburner to encourage distribution and interest.

4.4) Subscribe your RSS to Techcrunch, iGoogle, My Yahoo Web or other favorite RSS readers

4.5) Watch for changes in your industry (using Google Alerts) - be the first to comment and engage in your topic. First commenter's often get more visibility and traction.

4.6) Add a Forum - Having a Forum on your website is a great way of building a community around your subject area. Monitoring the forum will both give you a chance to understand what people are discussing and promote your expertise by adding your own comments.

The downside of a forum is it does need to be carefully managed. You need to allow people to make negative comments so they don't feel they are being censored, but you have to stamp out aggressive behaviour, personal insults, sp@m andmeaningless rubbish. This can be time-consuming work, so don't bother with a forum unless you have the time
to do it properly.

Non-technical people can pay to use vBulletin. More technical people can use a frëe opensource solution such as PHPBB. You can register your forum with BoardTracker to make it easier for people to find.

4.7) Contribute to discussions on related forums;

4.8) Add the 'Addthis' button to all pages of your site (www.addthis.com) so that users can easily bookmark your pages on their favourite social bookmarking sites.

5. Article Marketing & Online PR

5.1) Write relevant Articles & Press Releases that provide useful information to your prospects

5.2) Submit your releases to the major article directories.

5.3) Bookmark your article pages on the major social bookmarking sites.

6. Share Your Photos

If you have photos related to your subject area, post them on photo sharing websites such as Flikr and PhotoBucket. For example, if your website is about steam trains, take a camera to your next steam train show and post the pictures on these sites. People searching for steam train images are likely to try these sites. They can then follow the link on the photo to your website. P.S. Remember to include links back to your own site from the images.

7. Social Media Advertising

7.1) Create targeted ads to appear on blogs and social networks on socialspark.com and socialmedia.com & clickymedia.co.uk & facebook Ads

Search Engine Optimisation – why it works best with quality writing

noreply@blogger.com (Webpresence) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:24:00 +0000

Not so many years ago, there was a time when marketing relied on good copy in printed documents. It was when the written word had to have a long shelf life. Today, websites can be updated at any time from anywhere in the world and, consequently, sloppy writing has become the norm.

Attracting the attention of Google and other search engines is crucial for bringing visitors to your website. To achieve this effectively, Search Engine Optimised copy should run parallel with good website construction.

A competent website designer will know how to build a site so that it scores well in search engine rankings. Often, designers will set up “stalking” websites and pages that contain SEO-rich copy that is not meant to be read by the human eye but links through to the principal website’s Home Page.

Keywords

Probably the most crucial aspect of effective SEO copywriting is the density of key words. Key words are the most common words people type into Google when looking for a particular product or service.

A paragraph should be written to incorporate key words as early in the text as possible as search engines are more inclined to identify key words that are placed near the top of a page.

Ideally, website copy should have a key word ratio of about 7% and never more than 10% or search engines will punish your site for “spamming”; i.e. simply stuffing your copy with key words.

Keyphrases

Search engine optimised copy is more likely to achieve good search engine ratings by creating key phrases than by single key words. Key phrases are literally strings of words that people typically type into search engines.

A person searching for a steel bin or steel bins is more likely to type steel bin i.e. two single key words than type “steel bin” with quotation marks to create a phrase.

Enter steel bin or steel bins into Google and it produces about 370,000 results.

However, “steel bins” in quotation marks only returns 38,000 results, so by incorporating steel bins into a proper sentence (without quotation marks) it is recognised by search engines as a genuine phrase.

Misspelling

Allowing for people spelling words incorrectly is another way of attracting customers to your website.

Enter steal bin (two key words) into Google and it produces a whopping 4,180,000 results but enter “steal bins” in quotation marks and Google returns a mere 75 results.

In other words, incorporating steal bins as a phrase within your body copy, without it looking like a misspelling, can be very effective.

For example: ‘Steel bins supplied by Merlin Ward at these prices are a steal. Bins come in a combination of brushed steel bins, matt steel bins & etc’.

Misspelled key words that are commonly searched can add considerable value to your SEO copy. The trick is to use them without filling your web page with poor spelling!

Other areas of consideration for good SEO copy are: the overall number of words per page, especially the Home Page; keeping to one topic per page; paragraph headings; links to other pages; and page titles that succinctly summarise a page’s contents with just a few key words.

If your website copy incorporates good SEO practice and is managed by a competent website designer, it will attract more visitors to your site and turn “hits” into real business.

Ultimately, the golden rule for all website copy is that it must read well and that search engine optimisation should not detract from the overall marketing message.

By Merlin Ward - SEO Copywriter (www.merlinward.com)

Choosing an SEO Company: The 7 Myths

noreply@blogger.com (Webpresence) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:32:00 +0000

Watch out for following myths that SEO companies tell you to win your business! There really are a lot of cowboys out there, you have been warned!

1. No inbound link work is required - Are they from Mars? The quality and quantity of inbound links is the major factor in successful SEO.

2. That they can guarantee certain positions. They can't, unless they’re using Pay Per Click or sponsored ads.

3. They have a "proprietary method" of SEO or a "special relationship" with Google. Keep away!

4. Ranking at #1 will lead to more traffic or sales - only if they are for phrases that people are actually searching for and are highly relevant to your products/services.

5. Rankings will drop if you stop paying for their service. Not true, however overtime they will slip down the pecking order if link building activities are stopped.

6. They can provide an SEO service without access to your website - Wrong! Every SEO service should include on-page optimisation. The Fools!

7. They can 'hinder' your competitors performance or get there site banned - They probably can but do you really want to be associated with these kind of people? It's just wrong!

Want to know more? Check out the Google Guidelines for choosing an SEO company or get in touch with Lee

Choose the Right Keyphrases, Write Killer SEO Copy

noreply@blogger.com (Webpresence) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:41:00 +0000

Keyphrase Analysis – Identify your target keyphrases!

For each webpage;

1. Consider i) what keyphrases best describe the content of that page, and ii) what keyphrases you believe your future visitors will type into a search engine in order to find your content. It may be a good idea to sit down in a group and brainstorm!
2. Once you have a list of target phrases use the Google KW Tool to identify a list of related KW’s.
3. Analyse the list and identify the 3 most appropriate keyphrases for your webpage. There are the 3 considerations when selecting the best keyphrases: The most descriptive keyphrases...With the most searches performed...And the least competing webpages are thebest! (use the data from the Google tool!)
4. Once you have chosen your keyphrases write them down and rate them 1 through 3, with 1 being most important.

Now you should have 3 targeted, highly searched keyphrases per webpage; now it’s time to optimise your content!

Writing Great Content - The Content Formula

1. Create your page content by writing around 10 small paragraphs (exceeding 250 words). Each paragraph can be just a few sentences long or longer if you'd like.
2. Write your page content as close to how you would speak it in normal conversation as possible. Google and all the best engines use a natural text algorithm (NTA) that sees through spammy text in a heartbeat. Here's the formula...

Paragraph 1: Make this paragraph one of the longest and use each of your top three keyphrases one time. Use your number 1 keyphrase as close to the first word as possible. Use the number two keyphrase somewhere in the second sentence if possible but no later than the third sentence. Now use your number 3 keyphrase anywhere after number 2.
Paragraph 2: Use your number 1 keyphrase one time within the first one third of the paragraph text. If your paragraph is 100 words long, make sure the keyphrase is placed within the first 33 words, the closer to the beginning the better.
Paragraphs 3 and 4: Do the same as above using your number 2 keyphrase in paragraph three and number 3 keyphrase in paragraph four.
Paragraphs 5 onwards: Now mix things up a bit and use one or more keyphrases anywhere in each paragraph. Just do not use any single keyphrase more than three times total before you reach your final paragraph.
Final Paragraph: In your very last paragraph we will do exactly the same as we did in the first paragraph, but in reverse. Start it with your least important keyphrase and end with your most important.

* Courtesy of SEO-NEWS.COM

This formula works extremely well however it is not essential that it is employed, for authors with little copywriting experience it may be best to use the simplified formula below.

Simplified Content Formula

1. Content should exceed 250 words per page
2. Include around 3 instances of each target keyphrase
3. Use short paragraphs
4. Include instances of each keyphrase in the first & second paragraphs in order of importance (1-3)
5. Insert the keyphrases into the last paragraph in descending order of importance (3-1)
6. Each page should have totally unique content!

The SEO Bible - Optimising Dynamic Sites by Webpresence

noreply@blogger.com (Webpresence) — Fri, 26 Nov 2004 17:55:00 +0000

Hi All,

I've been doing a lot of research on optimising dynamic sites for the search engines, thought I'd share my findings with you. I'm not 100% that this is the correct way but please feel free to criticise me!

Getting the SE's to index your dynamic URL's

1. Create a STATIC sitemap linking to the dynamic pages
2. Create STATIC keyword rich 'content/category' pages and link these FROM the sitemap. Provide links TO the dynamic pages from these pages.
3. Implement a mod_rewrite

Optimsing unique pages;

4. Add the following fields to your database;
Title - page title Content - the introductory keyword rich text at the beginning of a page.
Have these variables pulled from the database into the template.

Submission

5. submit to the SE's as usual
6. Submit to online shopping portals / directories

Link Populariy

7. Build incoming links as you would for a static site, linking to the dynamic pages where possible.

Read more about SEO for Dynamic Sites

Cheers, Lee