Expert SEO Tips

Showing posts with label Keywords. Show all posts

How To Monitor And Manage Your Google Rankings

Keeping track of where your website ranks on Google for important keywords and keyword phrases can be a full time job. Although many tools exist for monitoring search engine position, properly evaluating SEO performance requires a disciplined approach.

There are a variety of ways to measure search engine rankings for your website. Popular website tools like SEO Elite and Web CEO include search engine ranking tools that can track where your site ranks for identified keywords. But what if you don't own SEO software?

To evaluate search engine rankings, you simply need a means of measuring rankings on a regular basis. Follow these simple guidelines:

Create and maintain a spreadsheet of your rankings. Having a document that you continually update can help you see weekly changes as well as trends over time. Be sure to keep it updated at least once a week so that you are always aware of how you rank for keywords and keyword phrases you are watching.

You can choose your keyword list based on the keyword phrases you've selected as important, those your competitors rank well for, or individual phrases identified by SEO software. If you want to get a jump start, you can identify which keyword phrases your site is ranked for in the top 20 on Google using SEOdigger.com. This tool provides a listing of which keyword phrases your site ranks within the top 20 Google search results for and can be a great tool to identify your competitor's keyword rankings.

Record changes in search engine result placements simply by entering each keyword term in to Google or using SEO software. You can also find free tools online to report your rankings like CleverStat or GoogleRankings.com.

Continue to make changes, build links, and record your results. This step will never be completed but rather is an ongoing process. You should strive to become number one on all your SERPs and get so far ahead that none of your competitors will be able to compete. This requires constant and never ending consideration to building links and creating more and more reasons for other sites to link to you.

Consider reciprocal linking, link acquisition, as well as adding free tools to your website, valuable content, and helpful downloads. Access to these tools is ideal if you want to attract links to your website. Once you've added these valuable tools, make sure to let others know that they exist. Consider a free press release, email campaign or promotion.

Expand your keyword list. As you improve your overall rankings on major search engines, consider adding other keywords phrases that may be relevant to your website, products or services. Focusing on an expanded keyword list can result in more traffic and broader appeal.

Monitoring and managing your search engine rankings, especially on Google is necessary if you wish to increase the organic traffic to your website. This begins with basic monitoring and evaluation of your rankings on key search engines. Once you've developed your spreadsheet, update your rankings each week with free tools or SEO software. Continue to focus on your rankings and developing inbound links through free tools and resources on your site as well as proactive link requests. Over time, as you improve your rankings for key terms and phrases, expand your list. Improving your rankings is a never ending process, but an important one. Stay the course and you'll experience the results you're looking for.

Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. He has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. For additional information on how to improve search engine rankings get your copy of The Webmasters Book of Secrets or visit The Marketing Blog.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Fleischner

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The History of Search Engine Optimization

Category: Keywords , search engine article , Search Engine Friendly Web design , Search engine optimization , SEF Menus , SEF URLS , SEM , seo , seo optimization , seo tips , SEO/SEM advertiser By Mikrotik-Master

SEO or search engine optimization is the process of optimizing websites for achieving high rankings in major search engine like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Hailed as a brand new service, search engine optimization has been around for over 10 years, the first appearance of the term “search engine optimization” was on the popular internet discussion system of the time called Usenet. The message was entitled The Truth About Internet Marketing and went on to explain various methods of advertising on the internet. [1]

There is a lot of speculation as to why search engine optimization was created in the first place. The reason it was invented is the same reason everything else in the world was invented: necessity. When the internet was first getting started in the early 90’s search engines were an entirely different monster than they are today. Back then, hardly anybody was using the internet and it certainly was not user friendly. As internet popularity began to grow, so did the use amount of websites in existence. Invariably as the amount of websites grew so did the need for organization and the search engine was born. With a never-ending increase of users and need for relevant web pages, the search engine optimization industry was born.

Starting as an elite group of web designers and internet guru is the SEO field was small and information was difficult to get. However, despite this fact businesses in the know were starting to recognize the internet as a medium for advertisements. Business owners began to realize that people are spending more time and money on the internet, and if they could rank highly in any given search engine, then their traffic and ultimately their customer base would increase. Then, the gaming began, internet marketers began optimizing and in certain cases deceiving, the search engines into a high rank. The few who knew about it had amazing results, which increased the “WOW” effect of SEO. In the early days something as simple as having accurate and keyword rich meta tags was enough to rank highly, even for a competitive keyword. However, one barrier prevented the industry from gaining any speed. The fact that there was still limited search engine technology, limited user base and limited profit making ability led many companies to prefer the mass medium to the internet.

Part II: The Evolution

After the dot-com bubble burst in 2001 businesses wouldn’t touch internet services with a 10 ft pole, the world was in a skeptical frame of mind, cautious apprehensive and unwilling to take unnecessary risks. This mindset was reflected in every sector most notably the business sector. It took a few years but eventually internet spending began to increase and so did the publics trust in the American economy. With the money flowing everyone began looking for market opportunities, and the internet was the opportunity. Those lucky enough to have top spots on major search engines gained a huge portion of business and web traffic. People and businesses started to see through the dotcom haze, internet marketing was not only viable but also lucrative.

Search engines have become integral to the internet experience and about 91% of all internet users, use search engines. It is surprising that 100% of internet users do not use them. However, as usage has grown, methods have changed. Things like Meta tags no longer worked and were useless. Competition for popular keywords or phrases grew substantially, and some deceitful users began to realize that there were methods of manipulating search engines. As popularity for SEO services and internet marketing grew so did the need for more talented and knowledgeable employees.

As the industry grew the tried and true SEO’s began to differentiate themselves from the ones using deceitful or manipulative techniques, a metaphor for this dichotomy was created and is known as White hat and Black hat SEO’s. Later on, most Black Hat SEO’s were shunned and regarded as spammers and even refereed to as Spamdexers. Many regard this as an inappropriate metaphor and contend that there are either SEO’s or spammers.

Part III: Google – We Are Here To Stay

In a brave new world there were many competitors vying for #1 most used search engine, the one that succeeded went against all previous search engine technology and has changed the way everything works: Google. The way search engines originally worked was they would search through everything on a page like keywords or Meta data. There were many factors then as now but in those days the keywords were enough. However, Google decided that to defeat manipulation and increase the relevancy of search results they would base their results in part off link popularity. The amount of one way inward links or (back links) the topical relevancy, the Page Rank of the back link website, the amount of outward links and many other factors all influence the way that a search engine determines which website is most relevant to a keyword.

As it turned out the decision to give more weight to back links then meta-data proved to be good for Google. Taking their place as the most popular search engine of the day Google has become a juggernaut of technology and advertising profits, giving it the ability to compete with huge corporations like Microsoft. With one main search engine to focus on SEO became a huge industry that began to branch out. What started out as a few simple web page edits became an industry with a multitude of techniques, technologies and careers. Words that pioneered the search engine optimization industry like Meta-Data and keywords fell behind in usage as link building; social networking and Local all took their place.

It was in 2002 that SEO professionals started gaining recognition and the industry as whole became mainstream. Starting with a string of legal troubles such as KinderStart.com LLC vs. Google Inc, [2] in this groundbreaking case, the LLC Kinder Start sued Google Inc because Google was practicing unfair business practices by using spam filters, which ultimately led to the removal of Kinderstart.com from Google’s index. Ultimately, Google won the lawsuit and even motioned for Rule 11 Sanctions, which required Kinderstarts lawyer John Yu to pay for part of Google’s legal expenses. The countries eyes were on news that was more important but this case began exposing legal precedence for something that would become very important as the years progressed.

Since it’s inception in 1996 search engine optimization went from all but unknown to one of the fastest growing and most profitable career choices in modern society. Starting on a simple Usenet message and surviving through the Dot-com bust of the 90’s, SEO is modern vernacular, something that is no longer fringe but instead necessary. Really when it comes to the line SEO is a subset of marketing, the only difference is the technology and procedures that work most effectively. One thing is clear as long as there are products to be sold marketing will always exist, and as long as the internet exists, there will always be SEO. The question is not whether search engine optimization has made or will make a difference but instead what difference it will make in the lives of billions of people.

William Atkin - Utah Search Engine OptimizationReferences

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Effective Key Words Strategies In SEO

Category: Boost Traffic , Free Traffic , Keywords , search engine article , Search Engine Friendly Marketing , Search Engine Friendly Menus , SEM , seo , seo optimization , seo tips By Mikrotik-Master

Search engine game is fun and excited, during which you can see a page goes from nothing to something in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). People tend to spend a lot of time to manually build the links and optimize the pages for optimal search engine placement, and overall it's paid off in a big way.

It isn't really all that hard to obtain a higher ranking in SERPs if you follow some good SEO practice, but maintaining that position is a whole different story.

If you have started promoting your web site and track your positions in SERPs. You will find that your pages can stay quite stable in some key words once you get there, but for another group of key words, they will be rolled out further and further till disappeared in the result.

So, what makes them so different?

Usually, the key words are categorized as Long-Tail key words and Competitive key words. Competitive key words are the popular key words which will bring you a lot of traffic if a page can list high against them. It's competitive since a lot of web site optimize their page and try to get a better position. For those Long-Tail key words, they are related to the competitive key words, but much fewer page talking about them or no too many webmaster would like to optimize their page for them. An example here is that "web hosting" is a competitive key word, but "family web hosting" is much less competitive.

If your page ranks high in the SERPs against a competitive key words, it will drop down quickly if we don't continuously promote your site with that key word. But for the long-tail key words, once you get to the top page, it would be hard to be second since there are less competitors.

A lot of successful stories have told us that obtaining front page rankings for several long-tail keywords can actually drive more traffic and be more profitable in the long run than ranking for a competitive phrase and not having the patience to keep it up there!

Strategy for Competitive Key Words

"Natural link" is the best way to win a better position against the key words. When another site owner links to your site/pages simply because they are a good resource, then you've just received a natural link. When you manually build the back links and no one else is linking to you then you are manually ranking your own site and if the keyword(s) you are targeting is very competitive, you simply will not hold that ranking for long, unless you constantly build those links and never stop!

So, the ways to avoid dropping down for the competitive key word is to provide the good content for that key words, and have the other webmaster give you a vote voluntarily.

Strategy for Long-Tail Key Words

Obtaining front page rankings for several long-tail keywords can actually drive more traffic and be more profitable in the long run than ranking for a competitive phrase and not having the patience to keep it up there!

The reason for this is because your competition, in most cases, for a long-tail keyword will be far less competitive, meaning it will retain top 10 rankings for far longer without constantly having to build links!

Summary

Use article marketing, link exchanges and other link building and SEO strategies to obtain top 10 rankings for long-tail key words, but don't spend your time manually ranking a site or page for a competitive one, it just doesn't pay off in the long run! If the content isn't compelling enough to rise on it's own, it's not worth your time to manually push it to the top.

There is nothing wrong with using articles etc. to get a site off the ground that is targeting a competitive phrase, but it should be the user's interest in the content that brings it to the top, not the Webmasters will to be on top!

If you want to achieve top-10 rankings for a competitive phrase, write good content that invites natural links. It's far less stressful and you're much more likely to hold that ranking for an extended amount of time!

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Raymond

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