I put a lot of my thought into developing strategies for search engine optimization (SEO) for my business’s many traditional websites and blogs.  Basically, an Internet business has only two choices when it comes to improving SEO.  One is for your business to handle optimization on your own; the other of those is to outsource the necessary research to companies who specialize in those services.  Such consulting companies cause me some concern for serveral reasons.  Many of the consultants are not well informed about legitimate research about how the search engine algorithms determine rankings.  Some of them seem to prefer to respond to the latest rumor rather than relying upon solid empirical data; perhaps they just lack the necessary analytical skills.  Some of the simply disguise themselves as experts, and then go out and purchase links from link farms.  These ill-purchased links occasionally allow your site to show short term gains, but those advances disappear about the time your check to the consultants clears the bank.  The last of my reservations about these companies, at least the last that I will mention in this article, is that they tend to be overpriced for the limited value that a business typically receives.

You should already know what my recommended solution is from reading between the lines of my first paragraph:  Take the time to educate your company team unless you want to hire the few very expensive geniuses in the field, such as Leslie Rhode, Brad Fallon or Dan Thies–if you can get them to work for you at any price.

But to take the do it yourself approach, you need some help in the form of basic search engine optimization education and good, well engineered software to help you gather and analyze the immense amount of data required to indicate potential areas of improvement and to track the results of the strategies that you implement.  I wrote a comparison of the most important SEO software on one of my websites.

I am an avid enthusiast of SEO Elite (see sales page).  This Callen designed program has been a leader in SEO software for years.  Until now, I have always endorsed it without any reservations.  I recently learned that they are getting ready to release a new version, SEO Elite 2.0, so I recommend it now only on the basis of two conditions: 1) That you can get assurance that you will be able to get a special upgrade price for the new version when it is released in the future, or 2) that you decide to buy the same company’s highly recommended Keyword Elite, because they extend a substantial discount for buying both simultaneously (it comes as an upsell).  I bought both at the same time and, together, they are still among the best investments I have ever made!

The only other comparable SEO software package is guru Leslie Rohde’s Optilink (you’ll land on the sales page).  Leslie Rohde is the patron saint of optimization, a genuine genius.  Rohde taught me much of what I know about search engine optimization.  Pardon the intrusion of my ego, but I know a heck of a lot about the subject.

To those companies that can afford the expense, I strongly recommend buying both products (as well as the amazing Keyword Elite).  However, if you are new to the online business world and you are going to begin your optimization efforts using just one, for the time being I am going to deviate from my usual recommendation and endorse Optilink.

Both SEO Elite and Optilink are comparably priced at just under $200 each, which is a bargain.  If your cash flow problem is temporarily significant, Rohde’s company offers a much less sophisticated program called Optispider that is only around half the price of the better Optilink.  If you really must scale back to that level, you might also consider the similarly priced ($100) Traffic Travis, by Mark Ling.  If you follow the link in the first paragraph of this article, you can get to my comparison of all of these alternatives, and there are direct links there to each of the software products.

I am a frequent user of both SEO Elite and Optilink, and I believe that they compliment each other marvelously.  They allow me to save hours upon hours of gather the data, and they make valuable contributions in assisting me in making sense of all the data they collect for me.

Here is one example of the financial results that a company achieved by optimizing a single keyword that moved from the bottom of the second page of Google to a number 4 position, above the fold on the first page.

A client’s website had a ranking of 18 for their primary target keywords on the second page of Google’s natural search engine results. Considering the number of companies competing for a high ranking on this keyword, a position on the second page seemed like a good accomplishment, but the volume of sales leads was disappointing.

SEO Works

A marketing strategy focused optimization efforts on improving the natural keyword ranking for this one target keyword. After some time and effort, the ranking for the keyword first moved to the number 9 position, and then to the number 4 position of the first page search engine results. The improved search engine ranking for this single keyword generated an increase in sales leads far more than expected, which subsequently converted to an increase in sales revenue amounting to over $1,000,000.

Tracking the Moves

The list below shows the search engine ranking relative to the number of sales leads that were generated from the company’s primary target keyword:

• Nov 08 – position 18 = 6 leads
• Dec 08 – position 9 = 31 leads
• Jan 09 – position 9 = 126 leads
• Feb 09 – position 4 = 102 leads
• Mar 09 – position 4 = 207 leads
• Apr 09 – position 4= 221 leads

Summary of Results

The increase in the number of monthly sales leads can be seen as the target keyword ranking moved up over the six month time period. The full benefit of the keyword moving from the 18^th to the 9^th position is reflected in the January total because the change occurred later in the month of December. The same applies to the move from position 9 to position 4 because the change occurred later in February.

For marketing managers and business owners who are wondering about the difference between having a major keyword listing on the first page of search results compared to the second page of results, this case study should provide some insight based on our experience.

It also shows an example of the potential benefit from having keyword search results listed above the fold of a web page as opposed to below the fold where viewers must scroll down to see more search listings.

Based on these results, there is clear evidence that a higher organic search engine ranking can dramatically affect sales lead generation and company revenue, in this case over $1,000,000.

Wriiten by Rick Smith at 10thDegree.com, contributing to the application of measureable data for online marketing agency and internet advertising agency – automotive seo websites.

When you’re making blogs, when you want to promote your site, the best thing that you need to learn that can fully catapult your online business to greater heights is to make yourself known in the world of the Internet and how do you do this? It’s through the assistance of SEO. People would type in their browser when trying to find something. If you are in this type of business, you have to make sure that whatever particular keyword, keywords or key phrases they type in the search bar of their favorite browser, the results would always point to your link, domain, URL or to your blog that points to your website. A keyword spy tool might be a big help to you.

A lot of people today are looking for their own keyword tracking device or keyword tool to find out which keywords people would usually type to find something specific. For example, if you have an online business and you have your own website and you are selling, say, car speakers and other audio accessories, you want to know what certain keywords people are typing on their search bars if they are looking for audio car speakers. Maybe they are typing in “car speakers”, “car speaker”, “speakers for car”, “car audio speakers”, “speakers” or something like that. That’s why, you need some tools like this Keywords spy tool software to help you determine the keywords people are using to find what they want.

Right now, a lot of software for this purpose are now flooding the market and each and every online businessmen must already have their own keyword tracking tool. If you still don’t have one, try to find out about Keyword spy tool software or better yet, before you can buy it, you can read some reviews about Keyword Spy and convince yourself why this is the best keyword tracking software that you’ll ever need.

Guaranteed Seo Video

A company mostly relies on its official web site to build a reliable customer base, to interact and get feedback from customers, and to use the site for advertising purposes.

With search engine optimization, some techniques are employed so that a web site will be listed on top of the list of results when a user types in a keyword by going to Google, Yahoo, MSN, or other search engines.

Emerging on top of a search list would lead more business your way that is why search engine optimization or SEO tactics are employed.

Some companies employ the services of establishments or individuals who deal with search engine optimization.

This would involve the development of a more informative and user-friendly web site. It may also include pay-per-click or adwords services, such as the one offered by Google.

Another thing that can yield positive results at a lower cost, as compared to an adword campaign, is optimizing a web site for organic search.

This would mainly require keyword density which would result to more traffic going to your web site.

In effect, you will have an added clientele and this should lead more business your way.

If you would like a hands-on experience with search engine optimization and you would not like to get a third-party SEO service provider, there are some techniques which are easy to learn so that you can do it yourself. Take a look at the following:

1. Take your time with developing your web site’s content.

For most web sites, content is the key. When writing the content of your web pages, insert vital keywords which relate to the products and services that your company offers.

Make it brief and concise, yet informative.

You might see that Internet users do not actually read a web site’s content word-for-word.

They just skim through the text and concentrate on the articles that they need and the data which they find interesting. A 600-word article may be too boring or too long for a user to read.

Keep your facts up-to-date so that users will visit your web site more often. Do not forget toinclude a lot of helpful links, articles and guides that users can forward to another user and add to your customer base.

Many people claim to be experts in the area of search engine optimization guide. We suggest you do some careful research yourself first.

2. Make the overall design user friendly.

In most cases, the rule the simpler, the better usually applies. Do not design your web site in an overly-complicated way that users will find it too “frightening” to browse through.

Adapt the design to your target market. If your target audience is younger in age, make sure that the colors and designs are funky, youthful and attention-grabbing.

For a more mature audience, you can use subdued colors and have a more elegant theme and overall web site design.

3. Vary the keyword for each individual web page.

Think of every possible keywords or phrases that will apply to your products and services.

Each user is different and may not necessarily use the keyword that you would expect them to type in the search bar. Search engines offer tools which will guide you through finding the correct keywords for search engine optimization.

4. Make sure that your hyper links are visible, accessible and informative.

Providing users with hyperlinks or HTML links which are useful and easy to find is yet another way to optimize your web site.

5. Learn how to lead traffic to your site.

Seek the advise of experts on this field if you do not know how to lead traffic to your site. Develop a plan and learn how to use the necessary tools pull traffic your way.

Gather all the statistical data that you can use to keep your web site on top of the search engines’ list.

Vary your web site’s contents and keywords to adapt to the current trend. If there is a particular word or phrase that you have not used when searching for keywords, use it instead to lead more traffic your way.

Be flexible enough to change your site’s contents and fulfill the ever-changing needs of the online users.

All in all, you would have your work cut out for you if you want to employ do-it-yourself search engine optimization techniques.

With the proper research, creativity and enough knowledge, you can definitely optimize your web site and yield very promising results for your business.

There are many webmasters that are confused to why they can’t get good rankings in Google. I decided that I wanted to provide you with seo help so that you will understand how you should really be building links. When I opened up my first website, I couldn’t figure out why my rankings were so bad. A few months later, it came to me that I needed seo help as soon as possible because my links had little value.

My first links were from blogs that were dofollow, and the pages were all high in page rank. Then, I would post a relevant comment on the page with my links in a signature. Since the pages had a high page rank, I figured that I would be able rise up the search engines for my keywords. After hoping to see results, I came to the conclusion that I was not going to see a major ranking increase. Since the blog pages had no relevance to any of my links, it was hard for me to move up the rankings for my keywords.

You will always run into people that think they are seo experts, but they really don’t know anything. In the beginning, I was led to believe that Google update the index during the toolbar update. Now I understand that the index is not delayed and that it is continuously being updated. Many people argue that new websites are put into a sandbox, but I really believe that they are just performing bad search engine optimization.

Relevance is the key to ranking well. If you get links on pages that have nothing to do with your website, you will never see good rankings. You have to focus on getting your keyword in the link anchor text. This is very important because Google is based on a link algorithm. If you continue to keep getting links on relevant pages, then your links will be worth a lot more.

After a few months, your website will gain a lot of authority due to the value of the backlinks and you won’t need seo help anymore. It took me a long time to understand how to properly optimize my websites. The experts don’t really want you to know what to do because they don’t want you as competition.

Social bookmarking demon as a concept is valuable for its intrapersonal networking functionality, but if you have a web page of your own, you should know that’s not all that it has to offer. The power of social bookmarking sites is 2-fold: you get a backlink to your site from a powerful authority domain and you can get direct visitors clicking your link on the bookmarking site.

Many software programs claim to automate your bookmarking at many different online bookmark sites. It was always puzzling to me whether they worked as claimed giving you live links or were just a bunch of hype.

In a world where getting high rankings and visibility for websites is getting tougher and tougher an answer in the form of a cool software which works was definitely an intriguing possibility.

Doing this by hand requires an incredible amount of steps including: registering at each site, going to your e-mail and clicking on the confirmation link, logging back in to the account on the site, and then finally typing in the URL description and tags, and saving it so it will be a live link in your bookmarking account.

Obviously, to achieve this on 20, 40, or over 100 sites would take you hours of time may be even up to 2 full workdays.  Your speed would depend on your Internet connection and your skills typing but either way it’s much too long and software to solve this problem is the way to go.

So here’s some questions I had about this software and any software for that matter:

Does it solve these big problems?

By what means, exactly, would it solve the problem?

Would the site showing the bookmarks have them appear, would they be real?

Would they get approved with the links and comment content going live?

There was a virtual ocean of questions swirling around like the tides and I wanted answers for them.

The concept is interesting, sure, but it seems like it might increase unsolicited emails, comments, and other forms of drive-by advertisements. I was interested in “google social bookmarking slapdown,” so I did some research and found tons of threads, as well as blogs, about it.

Start bookmarking demon right now.

I was getting scared now and didn’t know what to believe. Luckily for me, I encountered and spoke with a number of professionals in the marketing industry, who informed me of a software package that, with minimal work on the user’s end, wrote in a natural manner and avoided even the slightest appearance of spam.

It was back to square one, which was thrilling in a way, but it was tainted with the lingering fear of whether or not this was my best option. Because of them achieving good results it bolstered my confidence though I questioned whether I had enough information to do it correctly the way they had applied the formula.

I slept on it for a night or two, but eventually came to the conclusion that I should just act now to grab bookmarking demon and sort out the results later.

Here is one example of the financial results that a company achieved by optimizing a single keyword that moved from the bottom of the second page of Google to a number 4 position, above the fold on the first page.

A client’s website had a ranking of 18 for their primary target keywords on the second page of Google’s natural search engine results. Considering how many marketers are competing for the top positions for this keyword, appearing on the second page of search results seemed a like an accomplishment, but we thought that it could be better.

SEO Works

We focused our optimization efforts on improving the natural keyword ranking for this one target keyword. Eventually, the ranking for the keyword first moved to the number 9 position, and then to the number 4 position of the first page search engine results. The improved search engine ranking for this single keyword generated an increase in sales leads far more than expected, which subsequently converted to an increase in sales revenue amounting to over $1,000,000.

Tracking the Moves

The list below shows the search engine ranking relative to the number of sales leads that were generated from the company’s primary target keyword:

• Nov 08 – position 18 = 6 leads
• Dec 08 – position 9 = 31 leads
• Jan 09 – position 9 = 126 leads
• Feb 09 – position 4 = 102 leads
• Mar 09 – position 4 = 207 leads
• Apr 09 – position 4= 221 leads

Summary of Results

The increase in the number of monthly sales leads can be seen as the target keyword ranking moved up over the six month time period. The full benefit of the keyword moving from the 18^th to the 9^th position is reflected in the January total because the change occurred later in the month of December. The same applies to the move from position 9 to position 4 because the change occurred later in February.

For marketing managers and business owners who are wondering about the difference between having a major keyword listing on the first page of search results compared to the second page of results, this case study should provide some insight based on our experience.

It also shows an example of the potential benefit from having keyword search results listed above the fold of a web page as opposed to below the fold where viewers must scroll down to see more search listings.

Based on these results, there is clear evidence that a higher organic search engine ranking can dramatically affect sales lead generation and company revenue, in this case over $1,000,000.

Wriiten by Rick Smith at 10thDegree.com, contributing to the application of measureable data for search engine marketing and internet advertising – dealer websites.

When it comes to identifying all relevant keywords, should we attempt to do it ourselves or is it preferable to hire someone to perform this task?

A number of related issues go into the answer to that core question. Among the most important of those are these:

1. The depth of your knowledge concerning directly and tangently related keywords

2. Access to the tools that are available to assist in this process

3. Your skills at using the software

4. Your ability to interpret the results so that you are able to separate the useful words and phrases from those that will have little business significance

5. The overall amount of money that you have available for business development

Glancing at those five, notice that they boil down to how much you have studied the process of keyword research and whether the outsourcing alternative is within your financial resources. Let me address each of those in a bit more detail.

What You Must Understand

There is no aspect of online business that is more important than identifying appropriate keywords. Your list will form the basis of all of your search engine optimization efforts, your advertising campaigns (PPC and others), your copywriting and your article marketing efforts (as well as your other content syndication). The entire future of you business is directly related to the quality of your keyword research.

Some available tools are free to use, such as Google’s keyword research tool. Others can be purchased as desktop software or as online membership applications. You must be willing and able to use a mix of these resources in order to develop the most comprehensive list. You should gather information comparing various keyword research software options.

Most of the tools are relatively easy to use, but the interpretation of your results can be difficult unless you have experience in doing so. Each keyword that you discover will not have the same value to you as every other keyword, and a high volume of searches for a certain keyword does not necessarily make that keyword of greater importance to you than another term or phrase for which there may be substantially fewer searches.

Financial Issues

If the amount in your budget for early business development endeavors, this area merits the allocation of its share of those funds. The expense of outsourcing keyword research is relatively small when it is compared to the potential benefit. I recommend that, if you do hire professionals for this task, that you make sure that they also do a competitive analysis of your industry or niche and offer advice concerning how to use the findings of the study to your competitive advantage.

Sometimes, although not always, researching keywords is part of an overall search engine optimization (SEO) package. Consequently, if you plan to invest in such a large scale purchase, there is usually no point in buying a keyword or niche research package as well. However, if you choose to go this route (contracting for an SEO package), make sure you understand exactly how thorough your SEO company will be.

Bottom line: You can do this task yourself if you already know a great deal about the process (or are willing to take the time to learn what you need to) and if you have the critical tools.

Should I hire keyword research or can I do it myself?

A number of related issues go into the answer to that core question. Some of the most important of those are these:

1. The depth of your knowledge concerning directly and tangently related keywords

2. The various software tools that are available to your company

3. Your skills at using the software

4. Your ability to interpret the results so that you are able to separate the useful words and phrases from those that will have little business significance

5. The overall amount of money that you have available for business development

Glancing at those five, notice that they boil down to how much you have studied the process of keyword research and whether the outsourcing alternative is within your financial resources. I’ll go into each of those a little more deeply

Your Knowledge of Keyword Research

There is no aspect of online business that is more important than identifying appropriate keywords. The lengthy list that you generate is central to all of your marketing efforts. The tactics impacted include your article marketing, your search engine optimization, your paid advertising and your copywriting. In other words, without a good foundation of keyword research, all other aspects of your marketing will suffer.

Some available tools are free to use, such as Google’s keyword research tool. Others can be purchased as desktop software or as online membership applications. You must be willing and able to use a mix of these resources in order to develop the most comprehensive list. You should gather information comparing keyword research tools.

While use of the tools is relatively simple, in most cases, interpreting the results can be very tricky if you do not yet have considerable experience or a significant knowledge base. Not all of the keywords that are uncovered are of equal value to a business, and the number of searches for any given keyword does not necessarily make that keyword of greater importance to you than another term or phrase for which there may be substantially fewer searches.

Financial Issues

I believe that even if your funds are limited, keyword research is so important that, if you are not capable of conducting and interpreting the study, this is a place to spend those precious financial resources. The cost of a keyword research package is relatively small when you consider the potential return on that investment. I recommend that, if you do hire professionals for this task, that you make sure that they also do a competitive analysis of your industry or niche and offer advice concerning how to use the findings of the study to your competitive advantage.

Often keyword research is bundled into an overall search engine optimization (SEO) contract. Consequently, if you plan to invest in such a large scale purchase, there is usually no point in buying a keyword or niche research package as well. If you choose to go this route, make sure you understand exactly how thorough your SEO company will be.

It is possible to handle all of this on your own, if you are willing to take the time and invest the money in learning how to do it the correct way. Of course, you must also plan to invest in some of the software tools, as well.

backlinks

I am going to be giving away guidance, training and advice to people who want to create a presence on the web or are struggling with their current web sites, here is why.

Although very motivated at the time I have painful recollections of creating and putting up my first web site back in 2000. Everyone who embarks upon the task of building a web site should get a helping hand. Creating your first web presence can appear difficult if you are inexperienced.

Things like understanding the importance of back links and keywords, how they alter Google page rankings and page authority, and the correlation between these and traffic volumes are complex and consistently poorly explained by significant numbers of self proclaimed guru’s on the net. I have talked to so many people on and offline who would like to do this and simply don’t have the know how that I decided to do something about it.

After many years of toiling on the net, seeking out, studying and trying out techniques to establish successful web sites by pushing large volumes of surfers to them. I have decided to start teaching.

Because of my efforts and achievements I am fortunate enough to be in a position to do this and devote a substantial amount of quality time to it. Most people who is not sure where to start or already establishing a web site wants fast results, I’m no different and therefore whenever I have discovered excellent content and tools that work I am going to direct my students at these rather than try and reinvent the wheel.

Everything I have evaluated that has delivered good or excellent results will be incorporated in my training material and where there are gaps I have filled them in. On my journey I have created some techniques, tools and methods of my own that I consistently use which I will be including in the training.

To find out more visit my back links clinic by clicking on any of the links in this article….

PS: If your’e a blog owner then I have 12 new articles heading your way on back linking tactics and strategies….