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SEO Tactics And Link Building Tips

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SEO TACTICS AND LINK-BUILDING TIPS

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process by which webmasters and online business owners get their websites to rank highly in SERPs (search engine results pages) for keyword phrases that are both heavily searched for and related to their industry or niche. Two of the biggest types of SEO tactics are keyword optimization and link-building (increasing the number of incoming links to a website or specific page).

Here are a few SEO tips to keep in mind when thinking about keyword optimization for a new website or online business:

1. Use keyword suggestion tools to research keyword phrases related to the website’s or online business’ industry or niche topic.

2. Don’t focus exclusively on very general (often one-word) keywords or keyword phrases that would be very difficult to earn a high search engine placement for. At the same time, don’t focus on keyword phrases that no one is searching for. It’s sometimes better to be a “big fish in a smaller pond” than a “little fish in big pond” where you can’t likely rise to the top.

3. Include keyword phrases throughout a page, with particular emphasis on titles, highlighted subheadings, and early in any text areas.

Building incoming links to a website or online business is also an important part of SEO and improving search engine rankings. This is because search engines look at incoming links almost like a “vote” where another website is saying the site, or some page within the site, is of high enough quality to recommend to its visitors. Obviously, link-building can be manipulated in many ways that don’t equate to “votes” (such as by purchasing banner ads or text links on another website). For this reason, some incoming links are considered more valuable than others. Here are a few link-building tips to keep in mind, to build higher quality incoming links:

1. Try to achieve incoming links that are one-way, rather than reciprocal (a one-way link looks more like an honest “vote” than a trade does).

2. Build incoming links from relevant websites (of a similar topic or niche), rather than from generic link farms.

3. Get incoming links from “authority websites” (high quality and popular websites) whenever possible.

4. Look for one-page content-based text links if purchasing links, rather than site-wide banner advertisements (makes the link seem more natural).

5. To get a specific article or internal Web page to rank well in SERPs, build links to that page rather than only the site’s homepage.

These are just some basic ideas to get your grassroots SEO efforts underway. The are plenty of SEO tactics available online, or try some innovative tactics yourself to learn search marketing and SEO even faster.

Branding Strategies For Search Marketing

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BRANDING STRATEGIES FOR SEARCH MARKETING

Here are some branding strategies for search marketing, simple but informational. In other words old school grassroots SEO to get your branding efforts started. Branding, or brand marketing, is a basic concept in marketing. Essentially, branding involves marketing materials and tactics that help to build and maintain an image with a company’s, or website’s, target market. Branding on the Web is about building recognition of a website, and giving visitors or customers a specific feeling or attitude about the site, based on the message the owner wants to convey. Examples of online branding materials include:

1. A website’s official name.

2. A domain name.

3. A logo.

4. A color scheme.

5. Packaging materials on any products being sold.

6. Images on banner ads for the site.

7. A site slogan.

Building brand recognition, even online where branding materials can be in front of a target market regularly, takes time. Here are some keys to effective branding online:

1. Ensure that all online branding elements actually appeal to the target market.

2. Online branding materials should be memorable, and should portray the company’s intended image.

3. A website’s message to its target audience should be consistent throughout all of its branding materials.

Building a brand image for a website or online business isn’t enough. A webmaster or business owner has to constantly reinforce their branding efforts with their target market. Here are some Internet marketing tactics that help to reinforce brand marketing efforts:

1. Online Advertising (Using the company logo, slogan, color scheme, and message in advertisements when possible keeps a brand visually in front of members of a target market.)

2. Email Marketing (Including a logo and slogan on all email correspondence reinforces branding, while regular communication with members of a target market keeps that message fresh in their minds.)

3. Online PR (Announcing regular news related to a website through press releases or blogging can keep a website’s name and message in front of the target audience. It also provides a way to build and maintain trust in a brand by letting webmasters and online business owners display their expertise in the niche through blog posts and press release quotes.)

Find more branding strategies for search engine marketing throughout Grassroots SEO.

Search Marketing Saturation

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Is Internet Marketing a Saturated Niche?

When you make the decision to try your hand at Internet marketing, the first idea may be to create an Internet marketing product!  This is common among newbie ‘net marketers, because they know they buy marketing info products, so others will, too.

Is it true that the Internet marketing niche is already too saturated?  In a way, yes.  Bu if you can create a unique slant on an old idea, then you can definitely prosper just as well as the others who dropped anchor in this niche years ago.

The World Wide Web is always changing, and new things are being created that give you an opportunity to break out onto the Internet marketing scene with a unique product that sells well despite the number of competitors in that niche.

You may also want to consider staying away from the Internet marketing niche and paving a path in another niche, such as dog care, parenting, or financial advice.  As long as there is traffic and interest, then a niche can be profitable.

What often happens is that the newbie ‘net marketer has a specialty in an area outside of Internet marketing, and once the launch a highly successful information product on it, they write a “tell-all” eBook showing other Internet marketers how to do what they did.

There’s really no way for a niche to become fully saturated.  As long as there is continued interest, there’s always a way to come up with a new slant for an old idea.  Print publications do this all the time.  Whenever a writer submits a story to a magazine, they have to take an old idea and convince an editor they can write about it in a fresh manner.

Many Internet marketers routinely try to convince others that their niche is, indeed saturated.  Why would they do this?  It’s because they don’t want the competition from you.

To determine if a niche is truly saturated, or better yet, if you have a shot at success, visit third party product sites such as ClickBank and see how many products are available for the idea you have as an Internet marketer.

If you see twenty eBooks on affiliate marketing, ask yourself, “Could I come up with a unique slant or a better way of doing things?”  Sometimes all it takes is having verifiable proof of your own success to position you as an expert in a particular niche.  It can’t hurt to give it a try – and you may find that you edge out all of your competitors for the sheer fact that the consumers want someone new to take the reins and spoon-feed them their information.

How to make your website meaningful to your visitors

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Keeping your website fresh and relevant to your visitors means more business for you. Check out these simple guidelines to help you make your website copy better.

1. Entice visitors. With an enticing headline on every page, make sure that the information is useful for your visitors. Will your content add value or offer a unique selling proposition? If not, consider using a website copywriter to strengthen your business message.

2. Hold your visitors’ attention. A good goal is to keep the visitor on your website for at least a few minutes so that they can read three or four of your main website pages. Informative and enticing website copy needs to be written to appeal to your target audience. Copy needs to be interesting, compelling and persuasive and you need strong calls to action on your website pages so that your visitors can easily contact you.

3. Keep them coming back. The majority of website visitors will compare your service and products to your competitors or take some time to consider their purchase before making a decision. Not all of your visitors will take action the first time they visit your website. Make sure that your website has enough compelling, informative and interesting content to make visitors return.

What does SEO really do for you?

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SEO is the process of configuring a website so that it has a chance to show up in a search result for a particular keyword phrase. It is your way of telling search engines what you think your site is about. Each search engine has a slightly different formula for how they determine the results of a webpage.

Why is SEO Important?
One word sums it up – competition. As many as 20 billion web pages are being indexed at any given time. To stand out from the crowd, it is absolutely critical to make sure you are using every tool to make sure your customers can find you when they are looking for your products and services.

So why don’t more people do SEO?
SEO is a PROCESS, not a one-time event. It is detail oriented, time consuming and requires regular ongoing efforts in order to maintain results. SEO is one piece of a complete overall online marketing strategy.

Simple guidelines that you can control for best long-term SEO results:

  • Good site structure – The bottom line is that if you can’t easily navigate a site without problems chances are the search engines can’t either and you have no chance of ranking for your key phrase.
  • Good meta-data – Simply geek-speak for the code behind the scenes that search engines use to understand the web page.
  • Good relevant content– Visitors understand that good relevant content is really what they are looking for when they searched with a keyword phrase.  Websites appear higher in the search results generally have regular updates or blogs versus sites with older, stale content on them.

Internet Marketing for Newbies

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When you embrace the resolution to try out your hand at internet marketing, the first thought may be to create an internet marketing product or service. This is normal among newbie ‘net marketers, because they know they buy marketing info products, so others will, too. Spend some time learning about PPC search engine internet marketing and find the right resources to teach you the needed skills for marketing on the internet successfully.

While it may be true that the internet marketing niche is already too saturated, it doesn’t mean that most people have the strong PPC search engine internet marketing skills required to succeed at a high level. If you can create a unique slant on an old internet marketing idea, then you can definitely prosper just as well as the others who started out in this niche several years ago.

As most people know, the Web is always changing, and new things are being created that give you an opportunity to break out onto the internet marketing scene with a unique product or service that sells well despite the number of competitors marketing on the internet.

If you have a great concern that you may not be successful marketing on the internet, then you may also want to consider staying away from the internet marketing niche and paving a path in another business vertical, such as dog care, parenting, or financial advice. As long as there is traffic and interest, then any business niche can be profitable.

A very common approach to PPC search engine internet marketing is a “net new” marketer has a specialty in an area outside of internet marketing. These marketers then launch a highly successful information product or service in their area of expertise, and they write a “tell-all” e-book showing other Internet marketers how to do what they did.

Be secure in the knowledge that there’s really no way for a specific internet marketing niche to become fully saturated. As long as there is continued interest and enough strong demand, then there’s always a way to come up with a new slant for an old idea. Print media publications do this all the time. It is not uncommon for a writer to submit a story to a magazine, and they have to take an old idea and convince an editor they can write about it in a fresh manner.

Many people marketing on the internet routinely try to convince their competition that their internet marketing niche is, indeed saturated. Why would they do this? It’s because they don’t want the competition from you or anyone else looking to PPC search engine internet marketing. To determine if an internet marketing niche is truly saturated do your research first hand. Use third party information sites and see how many products or services are available that are comparable to your niche marketing idea you have as a new internet marketer.

During your independent research of marketing on the internet, if you discover twenty e-books on affiliate marketing or PPC search marketing, ask yourself, “Could I turn out a novel slant or a improved way of doing this thing?” Being successful marketing on the internet requires that you take the first step and give it a try – and you may discover that you succeed over your competitors for the simple reality that the consumers want someone with a novel to approach to provide them with guidance, expertise, and information.