Depending on your skill level and knowledge of the site’s purpose, writing the content may be the simplest or most challenging task in achieving your promotion goals. Once you have the information written and made live on your site, exposing it through social media is perhaps the easiest thing to do, and it doesn’t take long to generate a buzz. Here are four ways you can help light the fire.

Add links to social media sites on your Web pages – If you make use of a blog program through Blogger or WordPress to supplement your site content, you’ll know there are widgets available to help you advertise content for social media. Icons and links implore readers to add the content to Facebook or Twitter, all you have to do is click a link to make it happen. If you know a bit of HTML code, though, you can set up links on static Web pages for people to use to add your content to social networks. Decide which social sites you want to focus on the most, then get the code to create the links.

Import your RSS feed into Facebook – Whether you have a personal Facebook account or a fan page related to your Web site, you can use your profile to promote your work. Facebook’s Notes application allows users to import the RSS or XML feed of a blog or site, and will upload the content of the feed into your profile. Then, every time you add to the feed, it’s updated on Facebook and your friends are alerted. If you don’t use a blog for your site, you can create one just for use of the RSS capability for social media, then track referrals from Facebook and Twitter to see how effective it is.

Bookmark your content – Every time you write an article for your blog or site, add it to your social bookmark collection. Whether you prefer Delicious or Digg or any of the myriad of competitors, generating that buzz can help bring more attention to the rest of your site. Get friends and employees to set up similar accounts and help promote the links.

Write more content – For an author, the best way to promote a book is to write the next one. This tip applies to just about anyone using article or blog marketing to optimize Web sites…keep on writing! The more content you offer, the better the opportunity for showing up in search. A visitor may catch one article and come back to read more, and buy more.

Maximize your content through social media – writing, linking, and bookmarking. It’s a great way to maximize your business and your profits.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on SEO writing services and local PPC advertising.

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Source: SearchNewz.com

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You have created your website – uploaded content and images to create a pleasing online environment for your information – and are ready to launch. Yet, for all the relevant content and attractive photos provided, optimization for the search engines will require more than presenting a nice package. The site needs to be optimized for search results, that search users looking for information on your topic are able to find you. For newer sites, age can be a determining factor in how it is ranked among older sites search engine view as more experienced and relevant, yet with proper optimization and implementation good results can be had.

Some factors to consider when optimizing your website for good search rankings include:

Code – Is the HTML code that builds your website valid? Will a search engine spider be able to crawl your front page in its entirety, then go onto the listed sublinks without hitting any walls? Is your code free of dynamic strings that a search engine spider cannot read. If not, is the code altered in a way to keep the dynamic factors of your site without holding up a crawler’s ability to mine data from your website?

Content – Is the content you provide on site relative to the site’s topic? If paraphrasing from other sources, do you give proper credit? If your content is original, do you make it available to other sites of relevance to use, and do you include your link information? Is your content well-written, free of spelling and grammatical errors? Is there a proper balance of relative keywords that may be targeted in search? Is your content compelling enough to prompt site owners of relative content to link back to you without being asked?

Freshness – How often do you update your website? Do you use a blog to power your site with updated content? Do you syndicate your content through an RSS feed for other sites of relative topics to use? Do you use an RSS feed of relative information on your site to bring updated content to your visitors?

Keywords – How balanced is your use of searchable keywords in your content? Are the keywords used relative to the site’s overall content? Are you trying to trick the engines using keywords that are not relevant? Do you use too many keywords, or too few? Do you create anchor link text of searchable keywords, leading users to information deeper within your website?

Links – Do all of the links on your website work? Is every subpage within your site linked back to the home page? Do you have outbound links on your site that lead to relevant information? Have you performed a link popularity check on your site to determine what sites are linking back to yours? Do you seek link building relationships with sites of quality and relevance?

META data – Do you include relevant META tags for keywords and descriptions on your website? Do you use too many META keywords, too few? While META tags are sometimes viewed as being less important for search engine optimization than content, it is helpful to use the META description tag concisely to achieve accurate site descriptions in search results, thereby encouraging a higher click-through rate to your website.

Search Friendliness – Overall, how search friendly is your site? Will search engine spiders be able to explore the entire site without running into problems? Does the site look professional, original?

Sitemap – Do you have a sitemap containing links of all subpages in your site? Is it parsed correctly and easy to read? Is a link to the sitemap available on your home page? Do all the links on your sitemap work?

Usability – Is your site’s look and feel attractive to the site visitor? Is the site easy to read, easy to navigate? Does a visitor need to click on more than one or two links to find relevant information? Does the site load quickly?

One thing to note about search engine optimization is that there are no set rules. What works for some will not work for all. Take into consideration this list and apply the best of your abilities where needed on your website. Constant care to your website will yield results.

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If there is one thing a customer loves, aside from a wonderful product at an affordable price, it is somebody who is an expert on that product. Especially where online shopping is concerned, it is necessary for people not only to be crack salespeople, but also to be a virtual encyclopedia on the inventory for sale. Whether you are selling books, music, apparel, toys, or anything at all, you have to be quick with the answers when questions come.

Yes, they do come, and often! The major factor that separates online shopping from going to the mall is instant accessibility. At a brick and mortar store, a customer can closely inspect a product, read labels, or, if it is a book, sample a few pages before buying. While it is true a customer may call upon the assistance of a sales clerk to verify a few things, the likelihood of somebody making a physical purchase can be higher than that of an online purchase because everything a person needs to know is right there.

When you sell your product online, you basically sell yourself, and the way to attract customers and keep them on your site through the entire purchasing process is to provide the content they need and want to finish the sale.

Nobody knows your book, your CD, your product like you do. It stands to reason, too, that your expertise extends to various topics related to what you market. Article marketing can not only inform your customers of the finer points of your inventory, but aid to bring them to your site.

Simply put, article marketing is the act of writing articles on topics related to your product and posting them on your website or blog, as well as third-party content sites for the promotional purposes. Look around the Internet and you may find websites that solely exist to distribute content to websites. “Expert” authors compose short articles ranging from two hundred to a thousand words on a multitude of topics: health, religions, sports, travel, marketing, and reviews. Marked with their own business or personal URL, these articles are made available to site owners looking for timely material. One provision for using such articles is the mention of the author’s URL, so article distribution may allow for good link building if enough reputable websites use the content.

Having written the content for your website, coming up with supplemental information for articles should prove to be simple. However, if you feel you need inspiration to get the words down, look no further than the items on your website. Each is certain to tell a specific story, or offer some kind of information a customer will want to know. Consider what you sell, and what other people would like to know about it, how to use it, or how it works.

Books: If you are an author of non-fiction, write articles about the topic at hand, and expand upon certain points in your books. If you write fiction, perhaps you could write more about the settings used in your novel, or motivational articles that explain how you wrote the book. Write reviews of similar books, or about movies and items related to your work.

Music: If you are a musician selling your CDs, try some factual articles about the styles of music you enjoy, reviews of similar artists, or tutorials on playing instruments. As a professional musician, you can advise visitors what to look when buying a guitar or piano, how to choose a recording studio, or how to record music for Internet use.

Products: Whether you sell jewelry or toys, health products or sports equipment, there is certain to be a story behind every item. Write about subject affected by or that affect what you sell. Offer recipes for the food items you market, or the history behind the antiques in your inventory. When you look at your store from every angle, there are words to be found and shared.

When you sign up to distribute your articles, make sure each piece you write is accompanied by a thoughtful advertisement for your goods or services. Include your URL in every biography, and mind the terms of service on every third party database you join. Some will not allow you to put URLs in the actual article, but in the bio you have the opportunity of increasing visibility for your site. The more articles you write for some databases, the sooner you will be elevated in status, and acceptance for articles enjoys a faster turnaround time.

When customers come to your site looking for information, let the articles you write be their guide. Distribute them elsewhere, that new customers may come to you already informed and ready to buy.

Kathryn A. Lively is a freelance writer specializing in search engine optimization and social media optimization. She also assists with Virginia Beach website design.

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META tags don’t matter.

META tags aren’t a magic SEO solution.

META tags help determine how you rank in Google.

META tags can affect the volume of incoming traffic to your website.

You need META tags on every page of your website.

You don’t META tags on any page of your website but the main page.

Confused yet? Depending upon what you read about search engine optimization, META tags are either the be-all, end-all of good SEO practices, or an irrelevant exercise overshadowed by more important things, namely site content and link popularity. Over the years, the question of META tags has been discussed and debated by people in the SEO game, and in some cases sites have been taken to task to using certain words in META data not appropriate for the site’s material. Whatever you choose to believe about META and such HTML tags, let it be clear that if you are going to implement such code on your site, it is best to do so correctly and in a way that will enhance rather than harm your site.

A quick survey of META tags

When one thinks of META tags, more than likely two types come to mind. In actuality, there are a number of META tags that may be applied to the code of a webpage. The more popular ones include:

• KEYWORDS – A repository for placing keywords relevant to the website in one place, to allow search engines to find and therefore cache the site appropriately
• DESCRIPTION – Working on the same principal of the KEYWORD tag, the DESCRIPTION tag allows the website owner to summarize the purpose of the site
• ROBOTS – This tag gives instruction to the search engine spiders that visit the site, either allowing or forbidding them to cache the information on the page
• COPYRIGHT – Affirms the ownership of the site, handy if copyrighted material is used
• GENERATOR – Confirms the type of publishing tool used to create the page. HTML editors like Dreamweaver or FrontPage may automatically insert this tag when a new page is created
• REVISIT – Instructs search engine spiders to visit the site at specific intervals, handy if you update often, though the validity of this tag has been debated

DESCRIPTION

For the website owner who wishes to keep specific information properly indexed, META tags can prove useful in that respect. From an SEO standpoint, it is argued that the most important of these tags is the DESCRIPTION tag, more so than KEYWORDS and ROBOTS. Among the major search engines, often the data used in the META DESCRIPTION tag is used as the site’s description in search results.

Therefore, it is important to make sure that the content of this tag provides enough information in so many words to entice visitors to click-through. As search engines may truncate descriptions after so many characters or words, it is important to use this tag for a descriptive site summary without being too wordy.

Authors, in particular those with multiple books, may wish to use the DESCRIPTION tag to summarize the site in its entirety. Elements in the tag should definitely include name, the primary genre written, and what incentives the site offers – not just the books.

EXAMPLE ONE: Browse Jane Doe’s site of award-winning mystery novels for sample chapters of her latest works, her personal writing diary, and a chance to win a free signed book.

EXAMPLE TWO: Mary Roe writes engaging historical romance. Read sample chapters of To Marry a Thief, her latest in the Regency London series, and sign up for Jane’s free newsletter for contest and release information.

In the above samples the META description defines the purpose of each website. Each specifies the author and genre and offers calls to action – one to enter a free book giveaway and the other to opt-into a free newsletter with the promise of contest wins. Both emphasize the reading samples on the site, allowing visitors to try before they buy. In just two short sentences, the entire scope of each site is outlined, and this is what the search engines will pick up as they cache the site for further information.

Bottom line, be concise in your description tag and offer incentive for a user to click-through to your site.

KEYWORDS

The debate over whether or not META keywords are important may rage for years to come. In the early days of SEO it was common practice to use this tag to repeat main keywords ad nauseam or “stuff” the tag with popular search phrases unrelated to the site’s topic. As expected, search engines have become wise to such black hat practices and may even penalize a site for trying underhanded tricks to get top results. These days, SEO experts may advise novice webmasters to focus more on META description, site content, and organic inbound linking. At best, META keywords may serve as a guide for search engines to the the focus of your site.

Should you choose to use this tag, choose keywords that are most relevant to your site and content. The mystery author may use his/her name as a search point and other relevant terms: mystery novels, mystery books, mystery fiction, thrillers, detective stories, virginia authors, murder mysteries, and so forth. There is no set rule for minimum and maximum word counts in this tag – some websites rank high with three words in the META keyword tag, while others with 100 words may not do as well, and vice versa. Quality always trumps quantity where this tag is concerned.

Bottom line: relevance is key, but don’t spend too much time on this tag. Save your energy for building a concise, user-friendly website. Once you have crafted the HTML code of your site, make sure what you have to offer visitors is relevant and useful, informative enough to inspire organic linkbacks. A good SEO balance can help bring the traffic, and sales.

Kathryn A. Lively is a freelance writer specializing in search engine optimization and social media optimization. She also assists with Virginia Beach website design.

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How can you tell the difference? The answer is simple. Ask the hard questions and gauge their answers.

What type of Search Campaign does your firm prefer?

Ask the company if they do Paid Search or Natural Search optimization. The major differences are, a paid search should include a huge variety of key phrases, even numbering into the hundreds. A Natural Search is much narrower and focuses on a small number of effective key phrases. Your SEO firm should be able to do to both.

The SEO firm will set up a Paid Search campaign to gauge which keywords or phrases are targeted the most as regards your site and then they will focus their efforts on those select keywords or phrases for the Natural Search campaign.

Unfortunately, many times, firms skip the Paid Search Campaign because it is more profitable for them. In a Paid Search Campaign, much of the client’s money will go to Google or Yahoo to pay for the campaign, leaving little for the firm, itself.

The only time a firm should skip the Paid Search phase is if the client’s site is a narrow niche that has only a few, well targeted keywords or phrases that are appropriate to that site.

Not only should the potential firm be willing to perform both tasks, they need to make certain that the keyword or key phrase campaign is in keeping with the goals of the website. If the client’s goal it to generate leads, then the keywords and phrases should reflect that goal. If the client’s goal is to generate sales, the campaign should keep that in mind.

Does your firm perform SEO copy writing?

SEO copy writing is the creation of website content that is written to attract the attention of search engines. If you have seen a site with a phrase that is repeated over and over, you have likely seen a page that has been created by an SEO specialist.

The downside is these pages do not go over well with humans.

The key is finding a happy medium, which is keeping your keyword and/or phrase density to about 17 to 20 percent and to make the sentences and paragraphs sound natural. Because the algorithm changes frequently for search engines, this will keep any SEO firm busy by making frequent site changes to keep up.

Your chosen firm should not be shy about making site content changes without loosing focus of your over all business goal.

What about link building?

This process is extremely important to raise rankings with Google, who gets about 65% of all search business, and somewhat important to Yahoo and MSN, the next two most popular search engines.

Make certain your potential SEO firm engages in sufficient link building efforts. This is done by creating links to your site in a number of ways: blogging and social site are just the beginning. A good SEO will write articles and post those articles to sites such as ezineArticles.com or Helium.com. This creates a link back to your site. These articles can then be posted other locations, such as blogs.  If the system works well for you, someone else will find the article and post it to their site or blog, giving you an unsolicited link back to your site.

The problem is this method takes a long time (sometimes 2 to 3 months) for real results to be seen. The solution is to purchase links. Care should be taken to link to only reputable sites and not to link farms which sell links simply to make money for themselves. The more inbound links your site has, the better your rankings will be.

What keyword or phrase will be used to show my rankings?

It is a fact that if you do a search for an article by that article’s title, it will show up as #1 in page rankings. If you search for the page’s URL, it will be #1 because there is only one site with that URL. The real test of your SEO firm is if they can raise your rankings via a keyword or phrase that is a popular key word or phrase and not something so narrow that you are the only one who will have that particular search phrase.  What are the odds that someone will do a search for “Before You Hire an SEO Firm, Ask These Questions”?

The firm should focus on the keyword or phrase that will accomplish what your company is hoping to accomplish.

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Search Engine Optimization. A lot of people are clamoring to know exactly what it is. SEO is the process of enhancing the presence and visibility of a website on search engine listings. Not only is it a process, it is about the tool required to make the enhancement happen. There are two main types of search engine optimization:

*On page Optimization

*Off Page Optimization

When SEO was in its infancy, getting back links to a site was the most important factor. In fact, many books and articles written on the subject will still tell people that getting back links is the only proper way to optimize a website. Back links with proper anchor text, of course.

After search engine optimization has a chance to mature, SEO specialists became aware that using only back links is not at all the best way to optimize a site. In fact, if an SEO is only creating back links, the site is not getting optimized.

In On page site optimization, there are techniques and tools that are related to your own website and in OFF page optimization, there are items which are related to the other websites. In On page the old technique was Meta Tag Optimization, appropriate content, Alt tag optimization, proper navigation for the website and much more activities through which changes were made to the website, itself. In OFF page optimization, only back links were created.

Today, optimization is a little bit different. While using the old techniques are still appropriate, creating a Sitemap can be added to the list. Sitemap is something that came in existence a few years ago.

A Sitemap is a graphical representation of the architecture of a website. There are two kinds of site maps. The first is used to assist visitors to a site to navigate the site and the second is done in XML. XML Sitemaps–usually called Sitemap with a capital ‘S’–are used by Goggle to gather information about the site.

Sitemap is especially important if your site:

* Has dynamic content

* Has pages with a lot of flash or AJAX

* Is new and does not have many links

* Has a lot of archived pages that are not linked well, or not at all

The use of Sitemap becomes doubly important if the site has pages that can only be accessed through user entry. Sitemap will assist web crawlers in finding and accessing the pages.

Google has a very nice Sitemap tool that will assist in the creation of Sitemap for a website.

Karen Vertigan Pope writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company.

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