Creating and setting up a Web site on the Internet for personal or business use is quite easy. Considering that there are tons of tools and programs around to help you design and publish a site that requires no hard-coding or programming experience, you can easily create one for your own function in the shortest possible time.

The problem of budding Webmasters today is to come up with an online page that is accessible to the online public. Let's face it, a site that Web surfers don't know about is quite useless. SEO, or search engine optimization, offers tons of different strategies that will help these individuals boost their site's accessibility on the Web. But if it's your first time doing it, then you might find it hard to even try the simplest of methods in SEO.

However, it is quite possible to apply some of the Internet marketing strategies that follow SEO concepts without wracking your brains to make it work for you or to spend hours and hours implementing the changes. Here are some of them.

Keywords

Improving your accessibility through the use of search engines is the gist of SEO. To achieve this, you need to keep in mind that these lookup tools require the use of keywords from Web surfers to run a successful scan on the Web, so you need to place keywords on your site that fits perfectly with your online content.

For starters, you need to come up with a variety of keywords that people on the Net might use to look for information that is found on your site. Integrate these keywords onto your site title, description, site address (domain name or URL), and into the content of your online page to increase its search engine coverage. Avoid spamming keywords if you don't want to get your site banned from search engine listings.

Page Rank

Page rank is another fact that will improve your placement in search engine results. Your page rank value will be determined by the number of links on the Web that points back to your site. To get this done, you might want to contact Webmasters of other Web sites to place your link in their site and vice versa.

Other methods are also available to increase your page rank, such as:

• Social bookmarking

• Social networking

• Publishing articles on the Web with embedded links on the content

• Advertising your links on forums (place links your signature instead of posting it directly on topics)

• Submission of your link to Web directories on the Internet.

Search engine optimization is a very complex thing to internet marketers. It is the human anatomy of online business wherein all SEO components should work hand in hand just like the human body does. As an internet marketer myself, my initial goal is for my websites to land on the top 1000 search engine rankings and then work to improve from there.

In order to do that, I have learned from internet gurus that quality back links can improve search engine rankings. Let us define what back links are. They are incoming links to a website or web page. In the search engine optimization (SEO) world, the number of back links is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page. There are two kinds namely a) one way - free back links, no link back required and b) reciprocal - links pointing to your site while you link back. Where can you get them?

1. Link Farms - This is the most common way to get links to your website but search engine nowadays are frowning on it. A link farm is a Web page that is nothing more than a page of links to other sites.
2. Link Exchanges - A lot better than the first one because reciprocal links are established between two relevant websites. This is one way to get free permanent back links to your site. There are also paid options.
3. Natural - This is the best way, the only drawback is it takes time before you can see results.

How Does It Work?
To land on the top 1000 search engine rankings, one has to write an original article. The content should be relevant to the topic being discussed. It should be brief and concise, easy to understand and comprehend, and should contain the proper keywords. The article should be proofread for punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors. The last thing you would want to happen is disappoint your readers with simple mistakes on your article.

Next step is to submit your article to article submission sites with a high PR (page rank). And don't forget article directories and social book marking sites. These sites offer free back links no link back required. For better results you can choose to submit only to sites with a PR 3 or higher. After submission, all you have to do is wait for at least one week.

You will surely notice the difference. Your submitted article will be made available for redistribution to other sites and when publishers pick it up, your back links will surely increase and it will continue to rise as your website matures and ages. The beauty of this is what you get are all free permanent back links to your site. More back links means more visitors and finally more money for you.

Getting quality links is only one aspect of the ever changing SEO techniques and strategies. There are several of them but one has to start from the basics. I have used it before and I am still using it today. Quality back links can help you land on the top 1000 search engine rankings.

It seems that everybody is an SEO expert, even though, if you truly understand the field, you quickly come to realize that nobody knows everything about SEO. In fact, many people who say they do, are really just guessing.
There are barriers to understanding, specific to Search Engine Optimization strategies, which make SEO a very inexact science:

1.Search Engine Companies do not give accurate information about what they penalize for, or rate high for. They choose to keep this information obscure so that results cannot be manipulated.

2.Many "experts" use anecdotal evidence because it is the only kind they can use. This means that their results are very subjective, and not accurate.

3.Statistical data is nearly impossible to obtain. Since site content varies and no two sites are alike, and since there are so many other variables (marketing, traffic happenstance, optimization variances,
etc), you cannot exactly pinpoint which strategy yielded what result.

4.Time delays complicate the picture. If you make a change in your site, results may be almost immediate, or they may take up to 6 months to show up. If you make regular changes to your site, it may be VERY difficult to actually pinpoint which strategies helped, and which ones harmed, or which ones simply made no difference, since typically we make changes more often than once every 6 months.

5.Most results are obtained from sites where the goal is to be successful, not to do comparative analysis. This means that no meaningful comparisons CAN be done, because you'll not risk harming the site by testing out a controversial tactic.

6.Many SEO "experts" issue information based largely on theory, instead of actual experience – some tactics require situations which are difficult to set up to be able to analyze with any degree of accuracy.

7.Search engines are computers. Computers are notoriously bad at using language. They can only compare word usage literally, not define the meaning. This means that judging relevancy is something that is not nearly within the grasp of any search engine company. In spite of this reality, Search Engine companies continue to promote the myth that they do consider it, and SEO writers continue to repeat it. In any given situation, a computer will judge links to be irrelevant when they are relevant, or relevant when they are not, about 50% of the time.

8.Search engine companies always want site owners to think that their algorithms can do more than they actually can. They want people to be off guard, and to feel that manipulation will get caught. This means they will perpetuate myths themselves, in order to create the illusion that they can track all forms of manipulation.

9.The goal of a search engine is to accurately index the value of sites and pages on the web. Many SEO writers forget this when they begin to speculate, and they assume that the goal of the search engine
companies is to trick people into getting banned, so they formulate all sorts of impractical strategies. This is rather silly, since an honest site owner is less and less likely to get trapped as technology
develops, as long as they conform their goals to that of the search engines – to insure that their site is ACCURATELY described.

10.SEO speculations and misinterpretations of policy are rampant. Many so called "experts" have devised all sorts of contradictory advice, which is highly illogical when thought out. Issues concerning things such as duplicate content, back links, outbound links, and other basic topics are often misinterpreted because someone has abandoned common sense. If a rule cannot be extended to all realms of the web – from small sites to mega corporations, and still be sustainable, then it is not something a search engine company would do. They are not banning all duplicate articles (or all article directories would be banned), they are not taking away some of your pagerank for each outbound link
on your page (or all directories would have a pagerank of 0), and they are not penalizing all Content Management Systems (or every large CMS managed site would be banned – a growing website group online).

11.Things change rapidly. So something that was true two years ago may not be true today. Acceptable tactics three years ago are considered Black Hat today. Sites that would not index accurately a year ago do so in most search engines today. Information online sticks around long after it has become obsolete, so while the rules may have changed, the article about it that was written years ago has not changed and is still available and being read.

SEO is not about money and fussy little technicalities, and it should not be. It is more about honesty and intelligent communication. Search Engines are not holding contests that benefit only the wealthy. Their guidelines always have been established to allow a nobody with a good idea that is well presented, to excel as easily as a corporation with lots of money behind it. I hope that never changes, because if it does, something unique about the web will be lost.

Search Engine Optimization is a highly complex, and highly speculative arena. Nobody knows for certain exactly where the fine lines are drawn.

Tactics which are manipulative, or which have been abused by spammers, are know to be a harmful influence on your site. Tactics which increase the ability of the search engine to know what
your page is about, and which help to more accurately describe what the page is about, are known to help.

Beyond that, we get into the gray waters of theory, and no one, no matter how well thought of, really knows the answer – or if they do, they have motives for not saying so.

This is not meant to imply that an experienced professional cannot help your site to rank higher. They can. But only if you hire someone who understands that the goal is to focus on the known things that
really matter, and which give you the most bang for the buck, at the level of service that you can afford. If their recommendations sound illogical, get another opinion.

Common sense, and honesty, are, as always, your two greatest guides to success with a website, in SEO, and in everything else.

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

If you can create slideshows, you can boost the traffic to your website. When you decide upon the slideshow that you are going to use on your website, make sure it is one that will meet you're the expectations and high standards of your visitors.

For one thing, you do not want your slideshow to be the plain old everyday type piece that sparks no interest whatsoever.

Certainly you would agree that if your website is just going to sit there and not attract visitors, you may as well not have one.

The creation of a slideshow to use for advertising your company will help to get you the traffic you need to be an online success.

How can I use slideshows to improve my business, you ask?

One thing that will work like a charm is to create a slideshow to advertise what you have to offer. If your business sells products, this will work. If you provide services, it will work.

No matter what your website is about, a slideshow will enhance it and make more people interested in what you have to offer.

People love to watch slideshows that are interesting and have lots of good information. This will allow them the time to be introduced to a new company and find out what this company does that they might benefit from.

If you have a live presentation available to give out, you may want to use a slideshow to explain what it is you are offering.

Create slideshows that have sound. This makes them more interesting. Getting prospective client's attention is the first step to making sure they will come back.

If your slideshow includes pictures of places and things that grabs visitor's attention, you are halfway there.

If you want to make sure that people will return to your website, create slideshows that have offers of a free CD for the viewers.

A free offer will get them every time. Use a little of your creative side and make a slideshow that includes digital photos. Put together something that is unique and talks about the point you want to get across.

The best way to get someone's attention is to start with something they do not expect. When you do this, the initial work is completed and all that is left is to get them directed to your website.

You will be surprised at how well this works to get people to go to your website.

Getting them there and keeping them interested is what your business is all about is your main challenge. Try it out and see how this simple method will work for you.

Richard Gorham is the founder and President of Leadership-Tools, Inc. His web site, http://www.leadership-tools.com is dedicated to providing free tools and resources for today's aspiring leaders. Offering high-quality tools in the areas of Business Planning, Leadership Development, Customer Service, Sales Management and Team Building.

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

So you have the squeeze page up, you have the sales page and the order page ready to go. You've set up the auto-responder and the links to the free stuff to get your email list excited about doing business with you. You even have the upsell products ready to go. The problem is nothing is happening.

Where is the traffic? The dam has not broken and all those eager buyers have not overwhelmed your server. What's wrong? You decided to let your pay per click ads to the work for you?

We're going to look at a strategy to reach your goal. First let's define your goal.

Do you want to get 600 sales? Ok, let's use that as our goal. What do we do first? If you've read any of my articles, you know that we start with a list. How many interested prospects would you need to have on your list to meet this goal in a campaign? If you consider a 3% conversion (to very conservative) you'll need to establish a list of 20,000 names. Now would be a good time to go back to Google to check the search stats on your product to see if you've got enough willing prospects.

Here is the strategy for your high targeted traffic blitz. Give yourself 90 days to ramp up.

Online ads

For quick traffic to the site to get you started, get a Google Adwords account for pay per click and an Adbrite account for targeted website ads. Make your keywords highly targeted. You want to stay in your niche for instance if you sell hair restoration products, target "hair restoration" not "baldness". You'll get less clicks but more targeted clicks in the category you're looking for.

Ezine ads

There are thousands of ezines out there. Do a search in your category to find the ones that will offer you the most targeted traffic for advertising. You can check the popularity of the ezines in Alexa to be sure that you'll be getting a popular ezine. Place ads regularly and tack the results.

Blogs

Go to Technorati to find blogs in your category to start contributing replies. Get to be a blogger and set up your own at Blogger. Don't forget to create back links to your squeeze pages.

Articles

This is an essential component to blasting targeted prospects to your squeeze page. I know you'll freak out when I say this because it seems like a lot of work but you need to have at least 100 articles out in circulation on the Internet before you can benefit from article marketing. I wouldn't stop there. Articles have a cumulative effect. You can literally ad thousands of subscribers to your list in a year through articles.

Press releases

>Send out a press release at least every two weeks. It is important that you get your brand out in the public eye. The media will take a while to recognize you. If you're in their line of sight consistently, you'll begin to get results after several attempts.

List Exchange

Find partners with whom you can exchange free products or special offers. This is a great way for them to add extra value to their own offers. Embed your links in your free information product. Be sure to create a highly useful product, not a cheap 10 page sales letter. The product must be able to directly benefit the reader. You can generate massive increases in your list this way.

Viral Videos

You can generate tremendous traffic with viral videos. If you have the skill to put three to five minute videos on Youtube and Myspace, you can bring in targeted traffic.

When you have a hit product, a great list, or a popular website, don't stop promoting. Continue to add more content, products, and prospects. Many people slack off when they achieve a measure of success in their business. There will be plenty of time to relax once you've put away a year of income. Most expert Internet marketers work like crazy to reach a level of financial security. They tend to love what they do and continue to help others gain success.

Dennis Morales Francis is a consultant and coach for business professionals and wellness practitioners. His website, offers its members online coaching on building Internet income and automating their marketing on and off the web. Dennis is the author of "Double My Revenues In 12 Months or Less".
Go to http://www.doublemyrevenues.com/money.html to learn how to put $120,000 a year in your pocket by pressing a button on your PC. You don't want to miss this E-Tutorial.

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

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are Two different things altogether. The two things go hand in hand but are often thought of as one thing. Search Engine Optimization is what is done to your site to ensure that the end users have a friendly easy to use web site with SEF Menus and SEF URLS that Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com crawl through and find your content. Search Engine Marketing is doing the advertising and marketing of your site. Ironical this is all done "offsite" whereas SEO is mostly done "onsite". SEO is a more technical process than SEM and involves a deeper understanding of search engine algorithms.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves advertising and target marketing in order to draw traffic to websites. This includes:

Pay-for-inclusion - Many SEM companies guarantee your site will be indexed by the search engines within a short period of time, and if you really want to you can directly submit your site to the engines. DO NOT DO THIS until your site is done. Also do not go around your SEO/SEM advertiser's back and do this multiple times, this is a form of spam which you are penalized for. Patience is the key. Submission fees are required for submissions to search engines and directories.

Email Marketing (aka "Email Blasts" and "Spamming") - I firmly do not believe in Email Marketing. Unless you already have your own list of clients that read your emails, don't Email Market. I never open spam and everyone I know hates being spammed. So why pay to piss off 10,000 people or more every week? Conversely the Email Marketer will tell you not to SEO or SEM your web site in more cost effective ways. They want you to keep paying for Email Blasts. I think spending your time and money on natural position on Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com is a much better business model then sending out 10,000 emails where 90% of them are not even read.

Traditional Ads (PPC - Pay Per Click) - Ads are displayed on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) generally these are text based ads, where the copy is written by the SEO/SEM advertiser. Ads are based on the Keyword entered in the search and fees are triggered by impressions. You pay for the ad even if it's not clicked through. You want to work with your SEO/SEM advertiser so that your ads Click Through Rate has a high percentage. You can easily spend hundreds a day for very little ROI.

Link Exchanging - The SEO/SEM advertiser trades for one way, reciprocal and three way link exchanges while making sure they are of the same niche as you web site is and not spammy web sites. Its the hardest part of getting your web site going.

ROI tracking - The SEO/SEM advertiser tracks your Web Site's stats

SEM and SEO are both a necessary evil if you want a successful web site. Make sure that you work with your SEO/SEM advertiser to Market your web site very strongly both before and after you enjoy organic listings in Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com. Remember if you website is brand new and has no content its going to go no where fast. Content is King. Listen to your SEO/SEM advertiser.

Focus on search optimization, and then expand into other marketing areas

A potential client recently asked a good question. She regularly reads various search-engine-optimization websites, and she was confused as to the current meaning of the term "SEO." What, she wondered, was the difference between SEO and online marketing?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is constantly changing. As the major search engines update their algorithms and redefine how their search results will be determined and displayed, the SEO industry must adjust and redefine to follow those trends. But there is a new trend as well: Search optimizers going well beyond search engine results and into other marketing areas but still calling it SEO. It gets a bit confusing.

Increase Your Page Ranks and Generates Your Revenues by Using SEO

Google applies more than 1000 factors while ranking any website and positioning it in the displayed results and page ranking is one of them. Somehow a page rank provides a slight idea about your importance among the millions of WebPages on the internet. A better page rank denotes that how unique you are in the crowd of World Wide Web and you have some quality information or services to offer. Higher PR never correlates you with higher position in the search engines result pages but differentiate your position among your competitors’ that you’re much better than all.

Page Rank is the most controversial topic ever discussed among the search engine experts. Most of them seem a bit confused about how pages are ranked, what are the factors affecting a page ranking etc. Page Rank is quite a mathematical formula that seems difficult but the reality is it is as simple as any other search engine algorithms.

Creating Synergy in Your SEO Efforts

There's no one single thing that can make your Web page show up in the top of the search results. But there are several little things that can. Taking the time to consider small Web site structure details and ensuring that all these details are working in tandem will reap benefits for years to come. Pay attention to the key components of SEO and synergize your optimization efforts, and you'll find it much easier to succeed.

Disclaimer: I'm openly admitting to not having researched the proper keywords. What I'm sharing is an example only. So, if you own a sporting goods store, don't assume that you've just received free keyword research. There could easily be better ways to refer to these products.

Learn the SEO lingo! This search engine optimization glossary will take the scary out of SEM-speak, helping you navigate the SEO minefield successfully.

Benefit statement
Benefit statements express how your company's product or service solves an immediate need and clarifies a specific unique sales proposition. These statements are written in a "What's in it for me?" fashion where company features are immediately linked to client benefits. Benefit statements may be different for different target groups, depending on their motivations. Typical benefit statements are linked to such bottom-line motivators as: saving time, saving or making more money, helping someone be more attractive to the opposite sex, streamlining operations, gaining new clients, gaining an industry niche or power, et cetera.

Brochureware
Brochureware is a negative term that denotes a print brochure being uploaded, without revision, as Web page text. Brochureware is always counterproductive and should be avoided at all costs. It doesn't take into account the interactivity of Web copy, nor is it typically written in a user-centric manner. Brochureware sites tend to see poor search engine positioning until the pages are rewritten for Web conversions.

Directory
Directories are compiled lists of sites, categorized and organized by topic. Each directory listing contains short, descriptive information about the site. Unlike spidering search engines (like Google), directories are compiled by human editors who approve listings. The human-involved process obtaining directories listings is far different than with obtaining listings in spider-built search indexes or paid search-advertising engines. In some cases, pay for inclusion is offered for expedited listings in directories such as Yahoo! and LookSmart. The Open Directory Project, on the other hand, is meant to always be free. Strong directory listings are an excellent way your company can increase its link popularity and its Google PageRank. However, a poorly written listing that is submitted to Yahoo! (and subsequently edited or run with ineffective writing or keyword research) can negatively influence a search marketing campaign.

Call-to-action link
Otherwise known as a hyperlink. Call-to-action links in Internet marketing campaigns guide the reader to a new action step. Call-to-action hyperlinks could lead a prospect to a new Web page, an email form, a text section within a page or a shopping cart. Correctly written, call-to-action links increase micro-conversion rates and can affect keyphrase relevancy.

Conversion rates
Conversion rates are distinct measurements that determine how many of your prospects take your preferred action step. Typically, micro-conversions (for instance, reading different pages on your site, or signing up for a newsletter) lead to your main conversion step (making a purchase, or contacting you for more information).

Description tag
The description tag is Meta data that appears if you right click your mouse and click "View Source" on any Web page. This data is written like a marketing statement and should clearly communicate the purpose of the page. Ideally, the description tag should be around 170 characters (with spaces). Depending on the engine, additional characters over 170 may be truncated. The description is visible on the SERP with engines that support this tag (some search engines, like Google, use a copy snippet for the description). For instance, the description tag for this page appears like this:

meta name="description" content="Learn the SEO lingo! This search engine optimization glossary will take the scary out of SEM-speak. Need more help? Contact SuccessWorks today for personalized assistance." ( this meda tag is typed without <>)

(This description has 173 characters, including spaces.)

Headline
A headline is a quick-scan way customers can instantly learn your company's main benefits (for instance, "Custom auto parts sale. Free shipping."). Headlines are typically in bolded text, and appear at the top of a Web page. Headlines and subheadlines (see below) are incredibly important for usability; as online readers scan, not read, headlines make the scanning process easier. Further, in code, headlines can be inscribed using HTML heading tags that can influence positioning.

Indexability
Otherwise known as spiderability. Indexability refers to if a site can be indexed - or recorded - by a search engine spider. If a site is not indexable, or if a site has reduced indexability, positioning will suffer.

Hyperlink
A blue, underlined word or phrase that, when clicked upon, takes users to another Web page, or section within a Web page. Hyperlinks are also known as call-to-action links (see above).

Keyword (or key word)
A single word (like travel) prospects would type into a search query box to find products and services like yours. Although keyphrases contain individual keywords, optimizing for keywords is not recommended.

Keywords tag
The keywords tag is Meta data that appears if you right click your mouse and click "View Source" on any Web page. Although this tag is not supported in many engines (this is not true with some Trusted Feed campaigns), the keywords tag is a place to highlight your keyphrases and include misspellings. This data is written like a marketing statement and should clearly communicate the purpose of the page. Ideally, the description tag should be no more than 170 characters (with spaces). For instance, the keywords tag for this page appears like this:

meta name="keywords" content="search engine optimization, Internet marketing, XML feed, conversion rates, landing page"( this meda tag is typed without <>)

Keyphrase (or key phrase; also known as a keyword phrase)
A two- or more-word phrase (like Florida travel) prospects would type into a search query box to find products and services like yours.

Landing page
Landing pages are pages that users would click through to from a PPC campaign or XML feed (that is, people "land" on a particular page as a result of search marketing efforts). For best results, these pages are highly targeted for the reader and specific to the PPC ad or feed description (for instance, if a PPC ad advertises a coat sale, sending prospects to the company home page would invoke frustrations and decrease conversions). Rewriting landing pages is one of the easiest ways companies can increase their conversion rates.

Link exchange
A link exchange Internet marketing campaign is the process of exchanging hyperlinks with a quality site that is somehow related to a company's product or service. For instance, a public relations agency may link to a search engine positioning firm's article on "PR and SEO marketing." The SEO may then include a link on their site listing the public relations company. Good link exchange vendors can increase a company's PageRank and increase the number of targeted visitors. Poor link exchanges (think $99 "link farms" where a company promises to link your site to thousands of others) can actually harm site positioning.

SERP
The SERP is otherwise known as the Search Engines Results Page. This is the page that users see after typing their search query into an engine. Since conversion starts at the SERP, it is an important job of the search marketer to obtain strong call-to-action listings that entice the click.

SEO (or SEM)
A form of online marketing, search engine optimization (or search engine marketing) is the process of making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. Successful search marketing helps a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases.

Subheadline
Like headlines, subheadlines provide quick-scan benefits and instant information. Subheadlines typically begin inner paragraphs, highlighting the following paragraph's main points and benefits. Subheadlines, like headlines, can also be inscribed using HTML Heading tags. When keyphrases appear in the subheadline, positioning for those keyphrases may be improved.

Title
Search engine optimization and Internet marketing glossary The Title tag is Meta data that appears if you right click your mouse and click "View Source" on any Web page. It is extremely important that every Title tag contains well-researched keyphrases and is written in a way that entices a user to click thru from the SERP. Ideally, the Title tag should be around 50 characters (with spaces). More characters are acceptable, but the Title may be truncated if it's over 50 characters. The Title tag is a crucial part of your search marketing campaign - and every page should have its own Title tag. For instance, the Title tag for this page is: (58 characters, with spaces.)

Trusted feed (see XML feed)
Spider-built search engines sometimes cannot crawl a Website even though they try and try. Indexing is important to large content providers such as Amazon.com and IBM, but the same problems that affect indexing with smaller sites can be magnified in large, complex sites such as these. To resolve these issues, all major spider-built search indexes offer a fee-based custom crawl service to large content providers. Many of these search engines have taken the service to the streets by partnering with vendors who often operate their own spiders. The vendors automate the crawling process for the engine and feed the data directly into the index entirely on the basis of trust. Beware, not all vendors are alike and some have unsavory pasts.

Search Engine Result Page
The search engine results page (SERP) is the first page searchers see when they've entered their query into the search box. This page lists results of the searcher's query, sorted in terms of relevancy. Gaining a page one or two SERP listing is highly desirable for businesses targeting B2B and/or B2C sales.

SERP
See Search Engine Results Page

Search engine optimization writing
Search engine optimization writing is specialized copywriting that entails weaving keywords and keyphrases into marketing or informational copy. The purpose of search engine optimization copywriting is to gain prime positioning for the desired keyphrases, as well as increase page conversion rates.

Spam
Spam is either a shelved potted meat product or an Internet term for unsolicited commercial email. In the case of search marketing, search engines had to put up their guard against overzealous search marketers who bombarded them with massive daily submissions and loaded their pages with keyword junk. These pages are often derided as pollution and described as spammy by search engine "spam police" who remove and blacklist all the spam they find from their indexes. Spam is the excessive use of any single "trick" meant to improve positioning in Internet search engines.

Spidering search engines
A spidering search engine (Google for example) is one that uses machines to fetch Websites and record its pages. The database of over 2 billion Web pages in Google's search index was gathered together using Google machines and GoogleBot (Google's so-called "spider" or Web crawler technology).

Pay for inclusion (PFI)
Pay-for-Inclusion services are designed for Webmasters that are having trouble getting pages listed in spider-based search engines. A main benefit of PFI is fast respidering (every 48 hours or so), giving site owners and Webmasters instant positioning feedback and the ability to change content frequently. Also, site owners can submit deep-linked pages and be guaranteed that the URL will be included.
The typical PFI program is an annual URL-based subscription with regular refresh cycles and click-based reporting. These programs are highly effective and potent for use in conjunction with seasonal campaign pages.

Pay per Click (PPC)
Pay per Click is a type of search marketing where advertisers pay a set amount every time their ad is clicked by a prospect (otherwise known as a click thru).
Some search engines, such as Overture, specialize in this type of advertising medium, although pay per click is not limited solely to pay-per-click engines. For instance, Looksmart, a directory, recently changed its business model to pay per click. Also, XML trusted feeds through Inktomi and Fast are sold at a per-click basis.

PPC
See Pay per Click

Usability
Quite simply, usability is making your site easy for your customers to find the exact information they need when they need it. Anything that makes the process slower (like Flash animation served to a dial-up customer) inhibits usability. Conversely, easy, intuitive navigation and strong, informative text enhance usability.

XML feed
(see trusted feed)