People are always asking me about a tool or software program to help them keep track of their search engine rankings.

I don’t actually use anything, so I never have a good answer. My standard response is:

“I check the top 10 results at the 3 major search engines, searching the keyword phrase I’m trying to rank for. If my page is not there- in the top 10 results – I close my browser and get back to work!”

I was talking to Saku of SEO Rank Monitor last week, and he offered to let me take his online tool for a test drive and check it out. While there are several programs and tools that let you check your rankings, this one is different because it can interact directly with your Google Analytics account…

From a review on Yoast:

…uses the Google Analytics API to combine rankings data with visitor data, showing you what the difference really is between position 1 and position 2. It’s also the fastest rankings tracker I’ve ever seen, ranking a few dozen keywords for me in a few minutes, and then on a daily basis after that, giving some awesome ranking charts…

They offer a full feature tour of the SEO Rank Monitor dashboard, and a 30-day free trial to let you check it out before you decide to sign up for one of their two packages. The best value is the Pro Package which allows you to track up to 10 domains and 2500 keywords.

All of the tracking & ranking data is stored remotely on their server. That allows you to access it all over the world by logging in from any web browser.

What makes SEO Rank Monitor different – and better – than other SEO tools out there is the option to connect it to your Google Analytics account. You can then retrieve data about your visitors for all your tracked keywords…

In addition to tracking your own keywords and campaigns, the dashboard also includes a Competitor Monitor which allows you to keep up with the success of your competition. Or easily find keywords with little or no competition.

All of the stats and data are laid out nicely in visual, easy-to-read charts & graphs with the option to export into other formats.

I took Saku up on the offer to give it a test drive, and logged in to one of his accounts. At a glance I could see where keyword phrases were ranking across Google, Yahoo and Bing. I could also tell which keyword phrases were moving in the SERPs. Specifically which terms were moving up in the results, and which phrases were moving down.

The charts load quite fast, and it’s very easy to navigate.

Inside the Analytics Monitor, it gives you a Keyword Value. You can look over this chart and see where you rank for various keyword phrases – and the Keyword Value tells you the number of click through’s you can expect with a number one ranking for each of those keywords.

Definitely cool, and a tool I’ll be checking out more. Give it a test drive with their 30-day trial and let me know what you think!

-> http://www.seorankmonitor.com

Best,

Disclosure: this post was sponsored by SEO Rank Monitor

Every month thousands of people are searching online to ask: How Can I Promote My Website For Free?

More often than not these people have an ecommerce type website, or a company replicated website they were given by an online business they signed up with.

Some are advised to buy expensive online advertising spots such as banner ads or pop-up ads, place free online classified ads, or pay big bucks to a search engine marketing company. None of these options are going to get you anywhere fast…

(That’s actually very 90’s advice!)

Earlier this week I received a similar question in my Inbox:

Hi Lynn,

I just joined an online business and wanted your advice on what would be my best choices for advertising it. It is an online store that has all brand name groceries and products that saves us all money, time and gas, 30% to over 50% on all of these products over Wal-mart prices. The website is http://www.myharvestamerica.com/arizona

Thanks,
Jim Rusk

My response to Jim:
“The best thing to do is create a blog or website that appeals to your target market, and then use your store link as the call-to-action within the content. That will allow you to get search engine rankings and traffic free, instead of paying for ads.”

When you have a company replicated website like this it is usually through a “business opportunity”, or a network marketing (MLM) company. Each website is identical, and is actually very similar to an affiliate link.

These types of links do not get indexed in the major search engines.

Example:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=+site%3Amyharvestamerica.com+arizona

How Can I Promote My Website For Free?

The absolute best way to promote your website for free online is to get good rankings in the major search engines. Since that is not possible with this type of website (or link), you’ll need to consider other options.

As I mentioned in my reply to Jim, you can set up your own blog or website and bypass that issue. Your first objective is to consider your target market (your ideal visitor) and brainstorm what kind of content would appeal to that market.

On that blog or website you create, you’ll write what is called SEO Content. This will make it easy for your buyers to find you online through the major search engines (like Google), and then you’ll have the opportunity to tell them about your website and whatever deals you offer there.

Jim’s website sells retail products at discounted prices, including brand name groceries, with free shipping directly to your front door. So Jim’s first step would be keyword research, to determine how is target market is searching for this type of service online.

I use http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

A quick search shows that nobody is really searching for individual products, like say – windex. The closest you can get is “windex coupons” which gets around 31 searches a day – but Jim doesn’t offer product coupons.

Instead, he should start with the base keyword “shopping” and target keywords like: online shopping, walmart online shopping, online grocery shopping, online discount shopping, online outlet shopping, buy groceries online, etc.

The goal is to create an extensive keyword list of all the things people are searching for you in your market, and then write content that specifically appeals to them. Optimize your pages or blog posts to rank well in the major search engines, and end your piece by showing them your website as the solution.

This is the absolute best way to promote a website or link for free online. Some people think that “SEO” (search engine optimization or search engine marketing) is difficult – but it’s not. It’s a simple matter of researching keywords, writing content that is optimized for those keywords, and getting links to that content. That’s it.

It’s a lot more effective than any type of free online advertising, such as classified ads, or even expensive banner ads or other online advertising options. And it’s free.

The short answer: Jim should create a blog all about online shopping. The benefits, the resources, reviews and comparisons, etc. This will allow him to reach his target market, engage in discussions with them through the comments, and become an authority in the niche.

The same would be true for a Tupperware or Avon rep, or any other merchant representative with a company website. The Avon rep might focus on anti-aging articles and solutions, the Tupperware rep on simple cooking tips or potluck parties.

The goal is to figure out what your target market is most interested in, and deliver exactly that – along with the solutions or resources they’ll need.

Best,

p.s. If you’re worried about the cost of creating your own blog or website, don’t be! You can set one up for less than $10. You’ll need a domain name and a hosting account. I use HostGator for web hosting, and if you use the coupon code “wordpress” you’ll get the first month for only a penny.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below

One way link building is an important part of your overall SEO strategy. The major search engines view these as high quality inbound links – when done right.

In this post I’ll give you 7 simple one way link building strategies that give your Link Reputation a nice little boost, and also bring in highly targeted traffic all on their own.

One Way Links are valuable because they are viewed as truer votes towards your web page. The exception is sponsored links, or one way links that are obviously purchased. There are a number of ways that Google can tell this, which is one of the reasons that a permanent inbound link tends to gain more weight over time.

Easy One Way Link Building Strategies

The goal is to get permanent one way links pointing to your web pages, whether that be the main page of your site or internal pages or blog posts on your domain. You need a good number of quality deep links to those internal pages to boost your overall Link Reputation. Following are 7 very easy ways to achieve that…

1. Interviews

Interviews come in all shapes and sizes, and you can really get creative with this one. A traditional audio interview on a webinar, podcast or online radio show will usually get you a link on the host’s site and also a mention to their mailing list (even better if those newsletters are archived online).

I prefer text interviews on relevant blogs, as they give you a high quality contextual link from a relevant content page. This can be done by answering a series of questions via email that are then published on the blog.

Another option is Q&A style, which is fun and easy.

Examples:
Advantage & Disadvantage of Outsourcing Q&A Style
Lynn Terry of ClickNewz an interview Text Interview
Life Change: Interview with Lynn Terry Text Interview
On Becoming a Market Leader Audio Interview
Lynn Terry Affiliate Marketing Success BlogTalkRadio Interview

2. Guest Blogging

Interviews are great, but guest blogging is even better for one way link building. Why? Because as the author of the content on the page that is linking to your page, you have full control over that link.

You can choose the keyword phrase to optimize the blog post, choose the page you want to link to that is relevant to that topic, and use your preferred anchor text in that backlink. And if that wasn’t reason enough to start guest blogging, you’re also putting yourself in front of an established readership in your niche!

Examples:
My Guest Post on Problogger
Guest Post on ClickNewz by Danny Cutts

3. Private Paid Link

One thing you really want to stay away from is programs or schemes designed to create your one way links, or text link brokers that sell you one way links.

These programs and brokers are really frowned upon by the major search engines and could hurt your Link Reputation rather than improving it.

This being the case, I still purchase text links from time to time – I just do it smarter. And I never purchase a temporary link, but rather a permanent contextual inbound link on a relevant content page or blog post.

How do I manage to do that? Simple: I offer bloggers a one-time payment to blog about a specific link on my site. Most of the “pay per post” brokers pay their bloggers $5-$15 for blog posts, so that price range is suitable – particularly for B-list or C-list bloggers. I usually use Job Boards on forums to make the offer.

I do not specify anchor text, give them more than one page or blog post to choose from, and just request that they blog about the topic and link back to the page/post. I do this because I want link variation, and because I’m buying “advertising” or “buzz” – rather than specifically buying text links.

Never use a broker. Do it yourself, or hire a virtual assistant to manage it. Period.

4. Article Marketing

Submitting articles to article directories is similar to guest blogging in that you have complete control over the content and the link. This is a great method that people have been using successfully for years.

In addition to getting indirect rankings when your submitted article ranks well, and then funnels traffic into your site, your article can also get republished all over the web – resulting in numerous quality one way links.

Sidenote: A lot of us – newbies and experienced marketers alike – are taking Jeff Herrings new article marketing e-course. It’s cheap and it’s awesome – super great investment to really nail this strategy.

Examples:
My latest article on EzineArticles.com
Quick Start To Setting Up Your First Blog Article at EzineArticles
Republished here, here and here (to name a few).

5. Testimonials

Most merchants won’t publish a live outbound link to your site from their sales page, but if you get creative you might just be able to get a link from their blog or an internal page on their website pointing to your review or case study of their product.

I’m actually seeing an example of this in the SERPs now with a page I’m trying to beat out for their #3 listing. By analyzing their backlinks, I discovered the merchant was linking to their review.

Look for merchants that link out to reviews, give live links in testimonials, or that have blogs. If they have a blog you can offer a detailed case study or success story as a guest post, which includes the link to your review of their product.

6. DMOZ Directory

Meh. Good luck. But if you can manage to get a one way link by submitting and getting an approved listing in the DMOZ directory – go you!

Here’s the link: http://www.dmoz.org/help/submit.html

7. Social Bookmarking

Ideally you should include social bookmarking buttons on your blog posts or web pages to encourage your readers to bookmark your content. This is the best and most natural way to get one way links from this source.

You can also set up your own social bookmarking accounts, but my advice is that for every link of your own that you bookmark… you should bookmark 5 or 10 other links on domains or properties you do not own. This keeps it natural, and resourceful.

See: Top DoFollow Social Bookmarking Sites by PageRank & Alexa Rank

Also download and read Social Media Daily by Michelle MacPhearson

8. Bonus One Way Link Building Tip!

This bonus tip is actually one of my favorite one way link building strategies. It’s so slick you’ll be shocked at how simple and effective it is. And it’s easy too – you don’t even have to request a single backlink for this one…

Write content so great that you get unsolicited one-way links to your page from all over the web. That’s it. This post serves as a good example.

Best,

Also See: How Many Backlinks Do I Need?

Over the weekend I discovered a site called LinkWheel that got my attention. They offer a service that creates “link wheels” for you, which is basically the “hub & spoke method” you may have heard about before.

The concept is that you have a money site, and everything else you create is for the purpose of linking to and boosting the ranking of this money site. The money site being where you promote and sell something, the spokes or other sites being relevant content that funnels visitors into that site…

This model can be a lot of work in regards to creating and maintaining all of the content and properties, and getting the link structure right – to and from each property. Done wrong it can ultimately penalize your money site in the major search engines, but done right I’ve seen some marketers have great success with it.

Howie Schwartz came to mind as I was first browsing through the site, and interestingly he was mentioned right there on the main page.

LinkWheel uses more than 60 different Web 2.0 Properties across unique IPs in addition to article directories, pinging, RSS directories, unique YouTube videos, images, etc. They say that all of their work is done manually, not outsourced overseas, and that they are the only link wheel service using 100% unique content.

You own all of the properties they create for you, with full log-in access.

I’ve read through every page of the site, including the 6-page PDF they offer via opt-in, and everything looks to be in good order. They have one-time plans as low as $65, and monthly development & management plans starting at $165.

This post is an advertisement for LinkWheel, and I would like to take this opportunity to open the discussion on their service and on the concept of the hub & spoke model… I’d love to hear your thoughts & questons.

Best,

We’ve discussed web page optimization, link building, and an effective link building strategy… so you know that you need backlinks to your pages in order for them to rank well in the major search engines.

But how many backlinks do you need?

The answer is: the number it takes to out-rank a competing page. If both pages are equally optimized for the same keyword phrase, and in most cases even if they’re not, it’s the number of backlinks that will determine who ranks highest for that search query. But not just the number of backlinks…

Why Some Sites Rank Higher Than Others… With Fewer Backlinks

Often, when analyzing backlinks, you’ll notice that a page with fewer links outranks a page that has more. The reason for this is in the quality of those links. Link Popularity is the number of inbound links, Link Reputation is the quality of those links. Quality is determined by a number of factors:

The type of link – article directory, social bookmark, etc. The variation in link types. The location of the link (content area vs footer, for example). The relevancy of the page linking to it, the anchor text used in the link, etc.

Another factor is the total number of unique domains linking to that page. Three links from one domain will not carry as much weight as three links from three different domains.

A little digging in the competing page’s list of backlinks can usually tell you exactly what it would take to outrank that page with your own. All you need is more total links, or higher quality links than theirs.

How To Analyze Backlinks

This method works well whether you want to analyze your own backlinks, or those of a web page you are competing with for placement in the search results.

Since inbound links (off-page optimization) carry so much weight in Google rankings, this is the one area you’ll do most of your competition analysis.

Here’s the quick & easy process I use to analyze backlinks:

• Search your chosen keyword phrase at Google.com.
• Click through the top results, and view the web page.
• Copy the URL of that page from the address bar.
• Go to Yahoo.com and use the search bar…
• Type in “link:” and then paste in the URL of the page.

example- link:http://www.clicknewz.com/1993/how-to-write-a-blog-post/

That will take you to Yahoo Site Explorer and will show you the total number of inbound links to that specific web page (URL). Once you’re there, you can use the drop-down box to select “except from this domain” to exclude all of that site’s internal links and see only the inbound links from other domains.

It’s easier than it sounds once I type it all out – give it a try and you’ll see it actually only takes a minute tops. A lot of people use fancy software programs, browser plugins or various other methods. I like to keep it simple.

Let’s walk through this together so you can see exactly how it’s done:

Tip: use the buttons in the lower right hand corner of the video to view it in HQ (high quality), or to view it in full screen mode.

What you’re looking for is the total number of backlinks to that page, and the total number of external backlinks (not including the site’s own internal linking). I tend to go for less competitive keyword phrases, and rule out competing with large numbers of backlinks and/or obvious authority sites.

That said, sometimes the number of backlinks alone can be deceiving so you may want to dig a little deeper. If they have a lot of backlinks and you really want to compete for their spot, then you can analyze the quality of those backlinks.

When analyzing a list of backlinks, count the actual number of unique domains linking to that page. If there are 5 links from one domain, count that as just one. You can also click through each link in the list, and look for the backlink.

See where it is placed on the page, as links within the content area carry more weight than links in static areas of the site: sidebar, footer, navigation, etc.

How relevant is the content to the page it’s linking to? Is it a pet site linking to a dog page (relevant), or a gardening blog leading to a dog page (not relevant)?

Also see if they are using your keyword phrase as the anchor text for that link.

The most important part of that research is to count the number of instances they use your keyword phrase in the anchor text. The total number of those links… will tell you how many links you need with that exact anchor text to out-rank the page.

While you’re analyzing the backlinks of competing web pages, you’ll often find great sources for inbound links for your own page. Look at who is linking to their page, and how, and make notes of places you can get your own link on that page – or on similar pages. Your competitors backlinks are a goldmine of link sources!

Watch the video, try it out, and see for yourself how simple this is

Best,

p.s. Next we’ll look at ways to get high quality inbound links, and exactly what types of links you’ll need for your pages to rank well in the major search engines.

Be sure to subscribe below for updates by email so you don’t miss a single tutorial in this in-depth Link Building series:

An effective link building campaign requires one major ingredient: variation.

If you are getting backlinks for the purpose of higher rankings in the major search engines, then you need a variety of links from a variety of source types.

The goal is to get organic, natural backlinks. The kind that both visitors and search engines love most. The kind that happen naturally on their own, but that you must also push along a bit for proper content marketing…

A common mistake that bloggers and webmasters make when promoting their content is to stick to one type of link-building only. Some do mainly article marketing, others prefer social bookmarking, some blog commenting, etc.

But ideally you’ll want a variety of links, coming from a variety of source types – with variation in the anchor text of the links as well.

It’s unnatural, and therefore appears spammy, to get 100 new backlinks all from social bookmarking sites only, and all with the exact same anchor text. This is likely to send up a red flag, and do more harm than good to your seo strategy.

This is not effective link building. It’s similar to running for a political office, and visiting all of the voting booths yourself… to cast votes for yourself.

An effective link building campaign is one that appears more like a natural buzz. Google counts links to your site as ‘votes’ for your content, and they are most interested in what other sites/people have to say about it than what you say.

In order to create that natural appearance for your inbound links, you use variation. You’ll want to get links from blog posts, blog comments, social bookmarking sites, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, web pages, press releases (if appropriate), article directories, niche directories, discussion forums, etc.

You’ll want a variety of anchor text in those links as well. This is best achieved by using longtail keyword phrases, or by using more than one keyword phrase that is relevant to the content on that page.

The advantage to using variation in your anchor text is that not only do your links appear more natural, which means they’ll carry more weight with the major search engines, but you can achieve top rankings for more than one search phrase.

For example, I have one web page that ranks in the Top 3 for three different keyword phrases. I make sales from that page every single week (and some weeks, every day). This is due to using the three different phrases as the anchor text, and switching it up each time I get a new link to that page.

You can create an effective link building campaign by kick-starting the buzz, and with great content you’ll end up with many more natural backlinks in addition to those you create yourself.

This is not something you want to do for every single web page or blog post, but it’s well worth it for those pillar articles – or those pages/post you most want to rank well in the major search engines.

An effective link building strategy might include:

• Create internal links from related pages on your blog/site
• Tweet the link and ask for feedback
• Publish the link on your Facebook profile or page
• If a blog post, create pingbacks to related blog posts
• Comment on related blog posts, using your specific link in the URL field
• Published a related YouTube video, include the hyperlink in the description field
• Add the link to your niche discussion forum profiles
• Include the link in your forum signature on niche forums
• Submit relevant articles to article directories with the link in the byline
• Submit a press release (if appropriate for your content piece)
• Write guest blog posts on niche blogs, with the link in your signature
• Engage in Cross Blog Conversations with other bloggers on the topic
• Include the link with 5-10 other related links on a social bookmarking list
• If the link is to the main page, add it to niche directories
• If the link is to the main page of a blog, also add it to blog/RSS directories

If you have a really good piece of content, these strategies will kick-start a natural buzz and new unsolicited links from a variety of sources. People may find and like your content and then stumble, tweet, bookmark, or blog about your link. And that’s exactly what you want.

Sure, this is work – particularly in the beginning. But once you identify your best sources you’ll find that it becomes faster and easier with time. You’ll have a list of blogs in your RSS Reader, a list of niche forums you’re engaged with, etc. And you can also outsource the tasks once you get a working strategy in place.

The variation in anchor text and sources is incredibly important for effective link building. Never dismiss a linking opportunity due to PageRank, Nofollow attribute, lack of option to include anchor text, etc. You need these to offset your highly optimized links… to avoid the dreaded “over-optimization” (ie: search engine manipulation, spam).

Best,

Previous Posts in the Link Building Series:
Web Page Optimization
Link Building 101

To begin this Link Building series we’ll look at the structure of inbound links, and the elements of backlinks that affect your search engine rankings…

What is a backlink?
Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. In the search engine optimization (SEO) world, the number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page.

In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node.

Backlinks are also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links. -source

As you can see a backlink is the same as an inbound link, or incoming link, and is basically a hyperlink pointing from one page to another. That includes links within your site (internal links) or links to and from other domains (external links).

Link Building 101: Understanding the Terminology

Your link building strategy is a big part of web page optimization, and getting individual web pages (or blog posts) to rank well in the major search engines – particularly Google. For effective link building, it’s important to understand these 4 elements – and how they are used to determine your rankings.

Link Popularity

Link Popularity refers to the number of links that point to your site, from other sites. This is considered in the ranking criteria because popular sites, or well-written content, should naturally attract inbound links.

Each inbound link is counted as a vote. The more votes you have, the more search engines consider your site a quality source in their ranking algorithm.

Link Reputation

Not all inbound links are created equal. The quantity and quality of your inbound links will determine how well your site ranks. Link Reputation defines the quality of your links, and is based on relevance.

Relevance is determined by both the Anchor Text linked to your URL (see next section), and the relevance between the pages that are linked.

In a natural setting a pet site may link to a cat site or a dog site. This is considered a relevant link. An unnatural connection would be that same pet site linking to a casino site, which is obviously not relevant.

Just as society judges you by the company that you keep, major search engines judge your web pages by the company that they keep… or the pages that they link to and get links from.

Anchor Text

Anchor Text is the word or phrase linked to your URL, or web page. This text defines the page that it links to, both for human eyes and for search engines. Ideally you will use the phrase you most want that web page to rank well for in the major search engines, and also a phrase that compels real people to click through and read the page.

As an example, this is Anchor Text: how to write a blog. That phrase tells Google that the page is all about how to write a blog. Using this phrase as the Anchor Text makes this page more likely to rank for that phrase.

Here is how you create a hyperlink with Anchor Text:

Google PageRank

This is an algorithm by which Google measures the relative importance of individual web pages. What most people know as PageRank is the little green guage in the Google Toolbar.

This PageRank feature in the toolbar shows a ranking from 0 to 10, zero being the lowest measure and 10 being the highest. This is not actual PageRank, and so is often referred to as Toolbar PageRank (TBPR). The toolbar does not necessarily display current or accurate data. See: Google PageRank: Tool or Marketing Gimmick?

My advice: Ignore TBPR when link building, and obtain any quality link from a relevant source that has the potential to send targeted traffic to your page.

Actual PageRank is the algorithm that Google uses to rank web pages. It is a complex algorithm, but we know it combines both Link Popularity and Link Reputation to determine how well any give page ranks, and for which search terms.

Google Describes PageRank: PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.

But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”. -source

Nofollow Attribute

The name of this link attribute is somewhat misleading as it doesn’t instruct the search engines not to follow the hyperlink, but rather not to influence (or pass PageRank) to the linked page.

This attribute was designed by Google’s Matt Cutts and Jason Shellen (of Blogger.com) in 2005, and was designed specifically to deter comment spam on blogs. It basically gives no weight or influence to outgoing links.

While this is Google’s invention, Yahoo and Bing also respect this attribute – though each search engine seems to interpret it differently. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nofollow for more in-depth information, including how to include the attribute in a link and charts on interpretation.

Since your objective in Link Building is to increase your ranking score, you would naturally avoid inbound links with the NoFollow Attribute. That said, numerous case studies have been done by professional SEO’s and many of them report this attribute as “suspicious”. Links with the NoFollow attribute showing up as backlinks in Yahoo Site Explorer, or in Google Webmaster Tools for example.

My advice: Ignore the NoFollow Attribute when link building, and obtain any quality link from a relevant source that has the potential to send targeted (human) traffic to your page.

Search Engine Friendly, Effective Link Building

Not all links are the same. But instead of worrying yourself over things like NoFollow and ToolBar PageRank, for effective link building you only need to ask yourself one question:

If Google did not exist, would this link make sense in my marketing strategy? How and where (and with what Anchor Text) can I best place a link to get highly targeted traffic to my page?

Keep those questions in mind as you consider your link building strategy…

Best,

p.s. If you subscribe below you’ll receive an email every Monday with the weekly archive from ClickNewz. You’ll also have the option to subscribe to daily updates, and receive notification about hot new topics as they are published.

Before we get started with the new Link Building Series this week, I want to make sure everyone understands basic web page optimization.

While link-building plays a big part in getting top search engine rankings, what you do on the page is going to dramatically influence your CTR (click-through rate) and your conversion rate. So – first things first…

Web Page Optimization Begins With Keyword Selection

The first step is to choose the keyword phrase you most want your page to rank well for in the major search engines. Each page of your site, or blog post, will be optimized for a relevant keyword phrase.

The main page is optimized for your most general keyword phrase, the categories slightly more specific keyword phrases, and your pages/posts should be optimized for very specific keyword phrases – called long tail keyword phrases.

Long Tail keyword phrases are phrases with 3 or more words.

Let me give you a quick visual example of how this would be set up on a website about nail art. Your first step is to use your favorite keyword research tool and type in the phrase “nail art”. You can use WordTracker’s free keyword suggestion tool:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

• Home/Main Page
  - Nail Art
• Categories/Navigation
  - Nail Art Designs
  - Freehand Nail Art
  - Nail Art Supplies
• Pages/Posts
  - acrylic nail art designs
  - professional nail art supplies
  - nail art step by step

That’s a very basic example, and it will vary with niches and keyword depth, but the goal is to start general and then get more and more specific as you get deeper into your site.

Note: While long tail keyword phrases generally have less search volume, they bring in a more targeted visitor and result in much higher conversion rates. Longtail keyword phrases also contain variations of shorter keyword phrases.

To give you an example one of my blog posts is optimized for starting a free online business, but also ranks well for the shorter phrase: free online business.

As that example implies, you can optimize a web page for more than one keyword phrase. I choose a Primary Keyword Phrase (the phrase I most want my page or post to rank well for) and also choose a secondary keyword phrase (or two). We’ll get into this more during the Link-Building series.

Web Page Optimization 101

Now that you have selected your keyword phrases, it’s time to optimize your pages. There are 7 places on your page where you want to include your Primary Keyword Phrase on each individual web page:

• File Name
• Title Tag
• Text Header
• Sub-Headings
• Within Content
• Within the Meta Description tag
• Anchor Text of Incoming Links

I’ll often name my images with my Primary Keyword Phrase as well, if relevant, but that’s as much keeping my images organized for which post they go to as it is “image optimization”.

I don’t pay attention to things like keyword density, keyword proximity, or any other fancy SEO terms. I simply use my Primary Keyword Phrase in each of those places, and a few times within the actual content. Usually in the first paragraph, the last paragraph, and maybe once more somewhere in the middle (a couple of times on longer posts/pages). That’s it. Keep it simple

Web Page Optimization for Blogs

Optimizing blogs is very similar to optimizing web pages. I don’t use any fancy plug-ins to achieve this on my own blog. This post actually stands as a visual example where you can see all 7 elements listed above.

Even though you are viewing this blog post in your browser, I’ll point out each of the elements here so you can get a better feel for how it is done. This post is optimized for the phrase “web page optimization” – a low volume phrase (around 9 searches a day, or 3,285/year).

With a blog, the title of the post also becomes the Title Tag or page title as well as the Text Header. As you can see, I’ve used the phrase in both the title and the file name:

If you look at the top of your browser, you’ll see the post title is in the Title Bar and you’ll also see it as the text header above the post. You’ll also see that I used the Primary Keyword Phrase in the sub-headings throughout the post:

Once you publish a blog post, the post title is also used as the Anchor Text for internal links throughout your blog – specifically to your post, from your archive listings. Your post titles will often contain additional words, diluting the keyword phrase in that Anchor Text. With this post, the additional word is “checklist”.

So my blog will create internal links to this post like this:
Web Page Optimization Checklist instead of Web Page Optimization (preferred).

This is where our link-building strategy will help, which we’ll focus on next.

How do on-page factors affect CTR & Conversions?

Ahh yes – I almost forgot to come back around and explain that.

Before anyone ever arrives on your web page, they run across your link – either in the search results or on another website. What they see in the search results is your Title Tag and your URL. Or if they find your link on a web page and hover over it, they see the Anchor Text and the URL.

Example:

What you say in those few words will determine whether they click on your link or not. A compelling title may grab their attention in the search results. Or a descriptive file name may encourage them to click through to read the topic.

As for increasing your conversions, that’s all in selecting the right keyword phrase. You want a very strong message to market match between your keywords and your content. Meaning your phrase defines what they can expect.

With this post, the phrase “web page optimization” very clearly defines what a visitor will find when they click through. This will increase your chance of gaining a new subscriber or making a sale (ie increase your conversion rate) – versus the other option: they click the back button.

Recommended Reading:

What I have given you here is a basic overview of web page optimization. For a more in-depth understanding of SEO I highly recommend that you download (and read!) SEO Fast Start, a free search engine optimization guide by Dan Thies.

Grab it while it’s free!

Best,

p.s. Also see my tutorial on writing SEO Content that outlines how to choose the best keywords & phrases for individual blog posts or web pages.

Stay tuned – this Link Building series is going to be fun

Yesterday, during our live webinar, Rosalind Gardner and I discussed creating websites for people – not search engines. What this means is that websites should be designed for the human visitor: provide solutions, easy to read, easy to navigate.

This is in contrast to designing around shady search engine tactics that promise server-crushing traffic, but in the end don’t engage human visitors or result in decent conversion rates – and can ultimately get you delisted from the major search engines altogether.

The search engines prefer visitor-friendly sites. Human searchers are their target market, and their goal is to provide them with ideal results.

Does this mean you shouldn’t write SEO Content? Not at all! In fact, choosing keywords & phrases very strategically will help you strike that balance between search engines and human visitors.

In this quick tutorial, I’ll show you exactly how I do that…

Writing SEO Content begins with choosing keywords & phrases. Your target market (human visitors) will reveal exactly what they’re looking for by typing keywords and phrases into the major search engines. Tools like WordTracker allow you to analyze the popular keyword phrases and their search volume:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

That link will open in a new window, or a new tab. I keep it open in a separate tab all the time, and refer to it a dozen times a day or more. There are a number of keyword research tools and software programs you can use, and most are fine, but I find this free WordTracker tool to be simple and fast…

As an example, let’s say you have a website all about bass guitars. You type in bass guitar into the field at WordTracker, and see these results:

This is a nice little micro-niche, don’t you think?

Looking over this list, we are choosing keywords & phrases that might inspire some good ideas for SEO Content. Any of these phrases will make for great pages on your niche website, but we’ll assume you already have a website and you’re looking for creative ideas for providing something new & valuable to your visitors.

The image above does not show the whole list you will see at WordTracker, but as I scanned down through those results a word stood out to me: chart. If we add that to our keyword search, we see these results:

A quick search on Google shows a good number of pages, images and even PDF files for bass guitar charts. This might immediately put most people off, but it’s also an opportunity. Your target market is stuck wading through all of those options, so one idea is to help them out and write a blog post series reviewing the available charts and pointing out the best charts to use.

If you have a mailing list for your site (and you should), you could send them a download link to the best chart and also a link to your series of chart reviews. Would they appreciate that and look forward to future emails from you? You betcha!

A mailing list manager like Aweber will archive your newsletter issues or broadcast emails, which will also get indexed and show up in search results. Here’s an example of one that I found on Google. That’s an easy way to create relevant backlinks to your content pages.

That’s just one idea of choosing keywords & phrases, and then leveraging the competition to create your own unique and valuable SEO Content.

Obviously free charts are not a commercial search, or the type of content you can easily monetize. If it were me, I would provide great value in the reviews and selections and then encourage visitors to subscribe to my blog or newsletter for more great resources. You might even provide a short report (a PDF file) listing the 10 best bass guitar charts as a bonus for those who subscribe. Great matching call-to-action!

Now let’s look at keyword searches with more of a commercial intent.

Scanning through our keyword list again, I’m choosing keywords & phrases that show an intent to buy. One such phrase is “bass guitar accessories”. One look at the Google search results shows that this phrase is pretty competitive. Without doing any major competition analysis, you can easily see that there are a lot of sponsored listings and well-optimized results:

Competition? Good! This means you can write up a nice little blog post, optimized for “bass guitar accessories” and expect decent payout on strategically placed Adsense. While it may take you awhile to compete in the actual search results for this phrase, established bloggers or website owners would do well to send a note to their list with a link to this post, using the title: Best Deals on Bass Guitar Accessories.

You could also use this in article marketing, writing SEO Content titled “Buying Bass Guitar Accessories Online” and linking back to your page or post. It would also make a great signature link in guitar or musician forums, of course.

Now if you actually sell bass guitars and accessories on your own website, this is not the best approach. Obviously that would work well for someone with a niche community or content website. So next we’ll imagine that you have an affiliate site that promotes these physical products.

So You Want To Sell Products?

The best way to sell products online through SEO Content is by using longtail keyword phrases. Longtail phrases are keyword phrases with 3 words or more. In these phrases, your target market is telling you very specifically what they would like to buy. That being the case, these longtail keyworde phrases result in a much higher conversion rate than general search terms.

Scrolling back through my original keyword list for “bass guitar” I find the word “beginner” in the mix. I decide to explore that a bit, so I click on it to see the results with that word included:

Hmm. There are only 47 searches total on this topic, and only 22 searches for the main phrase “bass guitar for beginners”. I guess it’s not really worth creating a blog post or a web page for that phrase. Right?

Wrong!

A quick look at the Google search results for this phrase shows that it is not at all competitive. The top search result only has 11 inbound links outside of it’s own domain, and another of the top 10 results only has ONE backlink (and it is an internal link from their own domain at that), and there is even one link in the results that goes to a placeholder page.

Bottom line: It would be VERY easy to rank in the top 10 on Google for the phrase “bass guitar for beginners” (yes, without quotes).

While it’s true that phrase is only searched approximately 22 times a day, that means that it is searched more than 600 times a month – or close to 8,000 times a year. Would you like 8,000 opportunities to sell a bass guitar with an easy top ranking? Would it be worth a couple of hours working on a nice piece of SEO Content for your site or blog to be in this position? Of course!

Most of your competitors are fighting for top placement with broader keyword searches, or more competitive keyword phrases. Choosing keywords & phrases that are less competitive and more specific not only make for easier rankings, but they also convert better for you!

What about the other phrases in that list, with only 1-8 searches a day? Again, it’s worth 10 minutes or even 2 hours of your time to write the SEO Content once, and let it work for you forever.

All you have to do is invest a little time upfront (or outsource the writing, even) and that little piece of content could trickle traffic in for years.

Using Keyword Qualifiers in your Keyword Research

I like to have a little fun with my keyword research, and try adding various qualifiers to the phrases to see what I come up with. They will vary between niches, but some of my favorite “keyword qualifiers” are: buy, order, get, find, products, download, deal, best, reviews, compare – just to name a few.

By the way, “bass guitar reviews” is another phrase that is not very competitive in the top 10 Google search results.

Speaking of qualifiers, like the word “buy”, did you know there are over 1,500 searches a day for… buy mini muffin pans? And did you also know that the #1 organic result for that phrase (without quotes) is an article on articlebase.com? Yeah… I’m serious. If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself.

Let’s say you want to sell designer handbags. Take a look at these keyword results:

If I were choosing keywords & phrases to optimize my page, I would choose #3: “buy womens designer handbags online”. Talk about qualifying their intent! Cha-ching! That is one beautiful 5-word longtail keyword phrase.

And guess what? The #1 organic result on Google… only has ONE inbound link (excluding their own internal links). The #2 result is a blogger blog with less than 15 inbound links (total).

See? It’s Easy!

Writing web content your visitors will love is not rocket science. It’s all about choosing keywords & phrases that match what you offer, to the people who are searching for it.

Creating properly optimized SEO Content will make both search engines and visitors happy, and will turn your blog or website into a passive profit generator.

Best,

p.s. Like this SEO Content tutorial? Subscribe below for more great tips & tutorials in the ongoing Web Content Writing series.

Writing content is an integral part of running an online business. From website content to blogging to article marketing, you need a constant flow of various types of content.

Each piece of content should work together to walk your visitor in and through the process, and each is an opportunity to make a positive impression and begin building a relationship.

Your goal is to turn your visitor into a loyal reader or a lifetime customer.

With that in mind, every piece of web content you create must have a clear objective. Knowing exactly what you want to accomplish – or what you want the reader to do – will help you create content in a specific order and with a clear purpose.

Let’s start by looking at an obvious example:

This example is not your typical web content writing – it’s about setting up a simple squeeze page to build an opt-in mailing list. It makes for a good example though, as there are a number of little pieces of content that go into that process.

You need content on the actual offer page, on the redirect page, the confirmation page, in the confirmation email and the follow up message, for the autoresponder series, etc:

That is, of course, my own simplified legal pad version of content mapping

How you map out your web content writing plan is not as important as the fact that you do. It allows you to see each element of the process, and focus on the specific purpose for each of those individual elements.

Last week we talked about Improving the Customer Experience. I used the example of going out to dinner, and all of the elements that make up that experience – the atmosphere, the noise level, the service, quality of food.

But online, the elements of your visitors’ experience are made up of various pieces of content.

Content is your biggest asset in an online business. It helps you rank well in the major search engines, get links from other websites, attract your target market, and convert those visitors into buyers or subscribers.

Good content keeps your list warm, keeps people opening your emails, or keeps people reading your blog – and it’s also going to keep the search engines coming back and give you more and more exposure to new visitors in the search results.

Your content is ultimately what makes the sale.

When you get ready to write, consider your objective upfront. A lot of people will say that their objective is to write content so they’ll get more traffic – you know, that whole thing about fresh content being “spider food” or attracting the search engine spiders?

Just getting traffic is fine if you have large advertisers that pay per impression, but for most of us traffic in general is completely pointless. Our real objective is conversions – whether that be to build our list, sell our products, or sell products as an affiliate.

So figure out your objective upfront – which means: know what you want your visitor to do when they visit your page, or after they’ve read your content. That way you can write in such a way that your web content leads into that specific call-to-action.

Now if you blog, and you’re writing daily for your blog, every single post may not be written for selling. Sometimes your call-to-action can be as simple as asking your readers’ thoughts and engaging them in a discussion through the comments section.

Or you might write a blog post or send an email to your list between promotions that is specifically for relationship building, or keeping that connection warm – and that’s okay too. It’s a necessary part of the process.

On the topic of web content writing, the question I get asked most is how to know what to write, and how to know what to publish where. Should this go on my blog, on my website, or should it be submitted to an article directory? Should I email this content to my subscribers, or put it on my blog and then email them a link to the blog post?

The answer to all of these questions lies in your objective, and in the specific purpose of each piece of content that you write. The best advice that I can offer is that you step back and get a birds-eye view of your business model. Look at it like a map – and look at each piece of content as a segment of that map.

- – - – - – - – - –

Find your ideal visitor. Connect with them where they are. Lead them in a specific direction. Communicate with them on their level at every step. Introduce your solution or offer. Answer their objections or concerns. Show them how or where to order. Follow-up with interest and support. Help them make the most of their purchase. Offer them additional resources or products to achieve their objective.

- – - – - – - – - –

That’s just one simple example of a basic online selling process. Take a close look at your business model, and your overall objective, and consider ways you can improve on your process.

The best way to do that is to create a web content mindmap. It doesn’t matter if you use mindmapping software, a whiteboard, or a plain old legal pad. Map out the content you need to write, and where it needs to be published, in what order… to achieve your specific objective.

Best,

p.s. Stay tuned as I have more web content writing tips in this series, including tips for sending emails your subscribers will love, answers to common content writing questions… and an a-ha moment when I reveal my own purpose for writing this series – and the unexpected source where this series began.

Subscribe below so you don’t miss a thing!