The Internet is one of the most valuable marketplaces in the world.  Target markets have changed immensely.  Entrepreneurs no longer consider the next block in their cities; or the nearest city in their State, as the most lucrative market.  A couple of years back, most companies thought that putting up a website was all they needed to increase their visibility and improve their presence on the Internet.

The Internet has become an open market where websites are literally jostling to be first in line on Google, Bing and other search engines of good repute.  The best thing about being on the Internet is that there is no “closing” and “opening” time.  With a website coming up first on Google’s list, the wheels of business can continue to turn, whilst the business owner sleeps.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is popularly known, helps web-browsers notice the websites demonstrate certain criteria or attributes that makes them worthy of high ranking. Some search engines prioritize certain websites according to the quality of their content- how well they are written, the kind of keywords used and their corresponding density, relevant back-links also make a difference.

The ever-changing requirements and standards of search engines keep most SEO providers on their toes. They must be up to date with the latest trends in order to implement an effective SEO campaign. Statistics have shown that more than eighty percent of Internet users are more likely to visit websites that they find through search engines. With this in mind, it is almost certain that SEO can change your business for the better.

Image from Paloma Gómez

The number of businesses which have focused on the world wide web instead of local markets have increased rapidly within the past decade.  The use of SEO service providers who understand the requirements that Search Engines demand, is one of the best online marketing tools for business promotion.  Cost alone, is enough to make this marketing plan worth considering.  The fee for using SEO services can range from $49 to $60 per month depending on the package that they would like to purchase.

In the days before the advent of the Internet, most companies would spend thousands of dollars putting two-page spreads in national newspapers, which would last only for a day. Afterwards, these newspapers are either thrown out or recycled. Newsprint ads unquestionably draw a good response from the public, but are really worth the steep price? Likewise, advertising on television costs a fortune. Are you willing to spend that much for only a few second of exposure?

Products, services and even companies may be advertised on the Internet effortlessly. Consumers can view them at the comfort of their own homes, without ever having to think of the weather or the time of day. The web is ALWAYS open for business -24/7.The best part is, SEO services cost a pittance compared to standard media marketing. For a reasonable fixed monthly amount (less than $100), you are assured of higher rankings on significant search engines and an increased amount of traffic.

 
Image from FindYourSearch

We all know that SEO or search engine optimization helps improve site rankings. Since Google is the most commonly used, its standards are used as a peg for configuring SEOs.

SEO basics require delivering value, creating great content and promotions, but there are times when Google changes their algorithms. So here are tips that you can follow to improve SEOs.

High-Quality Sites

Have you noticed that Google is now giving more importance to sites with great designs, good branding and unique content? The challenge now is to improve and make sure that your website can compete with others.

Social Signals

Comments on blog posts, tweets and Facebook likes or shares are good indications that people like your web content. This entices Google to increase your rank because they like “showing content that users like”.

Links

Linking isn’t as important as they used to be. They still remain an important factor, but Google is paying less attention to these due to link spams and focusing more on social signals. “According to a survey by SEOmoz, links used to account for 65% of the ranking factors in 2009 and now they account for about 40%.”

Keyword Usage

The old style required creating a page and optimizing it for the keyword you want to rank at. Google opts to send traffic to sites with a lot of content on the topic as compared to sites with just one article about it. It goes without saying that you still need a primary page with your desired keyword, but make sure to have other pages related to the topic and interlink them when you can.

Longer Documents

As mentioned earlier, more content (i.e. more words) gives your site better ranking.

Image from  Maria Reyes-McDavis

Linking is an essential part of SEOs and increasing page rankings, but at times it sounds forced or too repetitive. Here are some tips to make linking seamless and sound natural.

It is best to get links from various sources. Do not just rely on blogs, forums or directories. You can use all of them and add article sites, social bookmarking sites, new sites, editorial sites and many more other sources.

Keep in mind that the number of domains linking to you are much more important than the amount of links you have. Having many links from the same domain does not help much. It is better to have different links coming from different domains.

“Use the exact anchor text for 40% of your links”, but alter them in a way that they are combined with other words. For example, use “famous Italian restaurants” instead of just “Italian restaurants”, this type of anchor text must comprise 20% of the links. The remaining 40% of links should use anchor texts such as “check it out”, “click here”, “learn more” or showing the website itself.

If you create a page and optimize it for “Italian Restaurants”, direct 40% of the links to this page and 60% to your homepage. Do not lead all the links to the page you want to rank.

Lastly, use no-follow links. They help make linking more natural and less scripted.

Image from ivanpw

SEO or search engine optimization is very important for blog sites to increase following and attract new readers. Through SEOs readers can actually know that your blog exists.  Here are some tips that you can utilize to increase readership. Otherwise, it will remain invisible and it will be buried along with the many blog sites out there.

Strategic keyword placement is a common technique, for the reason that search engines such as Google and Yahoo, rank sites based on keywords. Your title must have a primary keyword which you can use in headings or other tags in your content. Ensure that image text descriptions or alternate tags contain keywords that are used in your blog posts.

When you link to other pages or websites use keyword-rich links. Make sure that you have the right keyword count. Use these keywords as often as possible, but avoid overkill. A keyword density of 3% should be safe. Use synonyms for your keywords because search engines give attention to them. It also helps reduce monotony and keep readers interested.

Link your blog to blog search engines or other websites and even competitors. It is even better if you can get them to link you. It makes search engines think that you have great bearing. Search engine algorithms give websites different ranks and indexes. Google for example has a unique algorithm which detects additional SEO tips and techniques. Sitemaps and robots.txt files are also other common ways to make search engines aware of parts of your site that you want and do not want to be indexed.

Image from FindYourSearch

Blogging has been one of the most popular things that people do today. Anyone can have their own blog site and write their opinion or write about anything they want. As long they have followers and their posts are interesting to many, it is fine. Now if you are a blog writer and some of your posts were highlighted and you have received bad comments and even a string of profanity from some of your readers what are you to do? Such situation happens to many. Even professional journalist received bad feedbacks from readers, most of them ignore these comments and go on with their lives because they are being paid to professionally but what if you are free to post whatever you like. How do you respond when someone attacks you personally because of your blog post which could be about anything like education? Click here for information.

First of all, if you have been attacked online, search for whoever attacked you. You can also enter your name on the user search to get other more blogs wherein your name might be used and then attacked on their own blog posts.

Check out what they are saying. You may have said something foul about their race, their color, religion, political belief or what not that made them attack you online. Next is to identify if they are damaging your reputation with their comments and feedbacks. Most of these comments would contain things like “you’re a dork or jerk or stupid. These can easily be ignored but they are posting claims that you were in jail or you came from a mental institution, these could easily spread and damage your reputation at which case you can set the record straight. Be sure to just straighten things out and not ignite another fight.

Taking your blog seriously is not just about posting content. It is making sure that it reaches a network of readers in order to gain a regular following. For this reason, more bloggers opt to register in web portals or search engines to boost their hits and gain more exposure.

BlogSearchEngine allows you to reach a wider audience and increase traffic in your site by adding you to their comprehensive and organized listing. They also provide a reviewed informational description of your blog and a promotional link to your site through several PR5 and PR6 directories.

The redesigned BlogSearchEngine site currently offers the following packages:

Standard Package     $14.99

Blog Search Engine Review Listing

Silver Package          $24.99

The Silver Membership Package includes the same offerings as the Standard Package plus a blog review which is written and published with permanent backlinks on Bloggy Award. You also get listed at Xfep.com –‘Uber Blogs’ for 3 months.

Gold Package          $59.99

For the Gold Package you can get everything in the silver package plus a 30 day link on EatonWeb –a portal with the same functions as BlogSearchEngine.

Platinum Package      $99.99

The Platinum Package is the ultimate member package because it is a combination of all three packages mentioned above. The best part is that you get a custom made banner that will be displayed in the top right ‘Featured Blogs’ section of BlogSearchEngine for 15 days.

Get featured now and become a member. For as low as $14.99, get a chance to win a Platinum Package worth $99.99!

Here’s how:

1. Simply send out a tweet about this contest and include a link back to the following URL: http://bit.ly/rqPTDL
2. Copy and paste the full tweet you sent into the comments section on this page.

The contest goes until end of day 11/11/11 and the winner will be announced no later than 11/14/2011.

This technique is perfect to bait links although I see one flaw – while humor is something that may be natural to some people, not everyone has the gift of expressing humor. I have seen so many bloggers try their hand at humor and fail miserably. There is nothing worse than trying to be humorous and having your jokes fall flat, don’t you think?

If you are not a natural stand up comedian, do not despair, though. I have seen many other blogs which make use of pictures and videos – which they collect from all over the place. This technique works just as well. A word of caution, however: make sure that you acknowledge your sources. Mention the person, the site, or the group which created that video or cartoon strip. Otherwise, you are merely plagiarizing other people’s content and you know that that is a big no no.

Another important note – you can use humorous anecdotes, photos, cartoons, and videos and still convey the core message of your blogs. This is particularly applicable to niche blogs. For example, if your blog is all about religion, you are sure to find a lot of funny content on religion. Use these to supplement your posts and get the attention of other bloggers who would eventually link to your blog.

You know the saying that nice people always finish last? It is something like that, except that you do not have to be “un-nice” to stir up some controversy. The idea is to pick one of the hottest topics that people are talking about and then to go against the flow. That is, if your opinion is not the same as the popular opinion, go right ahead and declare it to the world. You’d be surprised at just how many people will take notice of you.

Matt Cutts gives an example. You know many people love Google? Gazillions of them. And what does one get by being anti-Google (and making sense of course)? This:

Saying something controversial. You can be cheeky, like Threadwatch, or you can be incredibly earnest. I give the creator of Google Watch credit for staking out the “anti-Google” territory way before anyone else. Later, Andrew Orlowski probably realized that taking potshots at Google or blogs was a way to generate lots of discussion.

Yep, picking a controversial issue and going against the grain will certainly bait you a considerable amount of links. Try it and let us know how it goes.

So what is link baiting, really? I like how Darren Rowse explains it:

The term linkbaiting is a one that seems to have surfaced over the past 12 or so months and that is used by webmasters to describe a variety of practices – all of which seek to generate incoming links to a website or blog from other sites.

It is actually a difficult term to be definitive about as it covers a lot of different practices ranging from running awards or competitions, through to writing attacking posts on high profile bloggers in the hope of them biting back and linking to you, through to providing other bloggers or site owners with tools (with embedded links back to your own site) that they can put on their blogs…

In short, anything that you do to attract inbound links to your blog (or web site) can actually be considered link baiting, right? Let us take a closer look at some specific things that you can do to attract those links to your blog.