Search Engine Optimization Journal: April 2010

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Search Engine Visibility

Bring more traffic to your website
Increase Customers
Get your website listed in major search engines

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Evaluating Your Email Marketing Campaign

By Jeanne Jennings,

Everyone wants to optimize her email marketing, but what do you do when your campaigns aren't pulling as well as you need them to? Looking at the metrics is the first step, but translating the numbers into an actionable solution can be harder.

This is where a critical assessment of your email marketing campaign makes sense. You can do this in-house or hire an outside consultant. Here's a quick how-to, with a list of the three most-common oversights companies make and some tips.

Define the Problem

First, you need to hone in on the specific problem. This will keep you or your consultant focused. Make sure you identify the earliest point in the reader experience where your email is falling down. Don't forget that a low click-through rate may be due to a low open rate.

Then, turn an objective eye to your email and figure out what may be causing the problem. The clients I've worked with have had one or more the following issues, each easily correctable once identified:

Overlooking the power of the "from" line. Most readers scan the "from" lines first when they look at their inbox and prioritize what they will open. If your email is from someone or something they recognize, your chances of being opened immediately increase. If it's not something they recognize, your chances of being opened drop significantly.
A case in point: A few years ago, the National Football League sent out an email with "Paul Tagliabue" in the "from" line. Being a football fan and knowing that Tagliabue is the commissioner of the NFL, I opened and read that email as soon as I saw it in my inbox. I don't have any metrics, but I'm certain I wasn't the only one. That was a powerful "from" line.
Asking for too much commitment in the subject line. A subject line is similar to the outer envelope in direct mail or a cold call in sales. The goal is to get people intrigued so that they'll want to learn more. If you give them too much info or seem too aggressive, you risk pushing them away. Terms such as "register" and "buy" in subject lines are common culprits; they ask for a commitment before giving readers any benefits to entice them.
For example, I received an email with "Shop for Insurance" in the subject line. My reaction was, "I have insurance. I don't need/want to shop for it." I bet many other readers had the same response. A better subject line would have focused on a benefit -- "Are you paying too much for insurance?" That might get a reader to open the email.
Poorly utilizing your "prime real estate." In an email, your prime real estate is the area the reader sees when he first opens the email. You want the reader to start reading and then, almost without thinking about it, scroll down and continue reading. Your copy needs to be concise and focused; it should be formatted with lots of white space so that it's easy on the eye; and it should include a call to action with a link.
For instance, a client was promoting an event for online advertisers and marketers. The first paragraph was dense copy with the key information mixed in. The second talked about statistics from Jupiter Media Metrix and had me going, "Huh?" It wasn't a good use of prime real estate. We revamped it, putting the key information into a header with lots of white space and a link to the registration. We eliminated the statistics, which weren't making the case for attendance.

The Benefits of Bringing in an Outsider

None of the clients who made the mistakes listed above is stupid. They are just so close to their products that they aren't seeing things from the reader's perspective. One way to get around this is to bring in an outside consultant to do the assessment. Here are some benefits and tips for bringing in an outsider:

Fresh eyes. This is one of the benefits of bringing in an outside consultant to perform the assessment. Her lack of intimacy with your product allows her to see things that you might not.
Broad experience. Bringing in someone who has worked with other companies' email campaigns gives you the benefit of what he's learned there -- both good and bad. One of the ways he will provide value is by applying these lessons to your email marketing campaign.
Cost-effectiveness. Contracting with a consultant for an assessment can be very cost-effective; you're not asking her to rewrite copy or provide strategy, just to take a look at your email campaign and make suggestions. This can take as little as two to three hours of her time. You can implement many of the ideas she presents (like the ones above) yourself.
Ideas for the future. The consultant will probably include some items that translate to a proposal for future work. You're under no obligation, but, as a result of the assessment, you'll get a feel for your compatibility with the consultant and the value that he can provide. If you do decide to move forward, you'll already have a relationship; you won't be hiring someone blind.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

FACEBOOK GROUPS vs FAN PAGE

Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed
Unlike pages, groups allow to send out "bulk invite" (you can easily invite all your friends to join the group while with pages you will be forced to drop some invites manually). Groups are thus better for viral marketing, meaning that any group member can also send bulk invites to the friends of his.
Fan Pages allow messages to be sent to the group and they show up as a tiny link or "Update" in the upper right-hand corner of your Facebook Home Page.
Group Pages allow admin to send a message to your Facebook Inbox.
If you are relying on Facebook to be the image of a business for your web presence then that is your first problem. Facebook Groups and Fan pages should be for Facebook
So, to close, both Groups and Pages are grand, Facebook is grand, but Groups, in terms of marketing tools, are simply far superior for viral and niche marketing. Fan Pages tend to be just that. Ask yourself: If you, say, owned a gym, do you want people to be a "fan" of your gym or do you want them to "join."
I thought this was a good suggestion, as I want to create events for my Page and alert all my fans to it. However, when you message everyone in your fan list, that message goes into their Inbox, in the Updates section, which I didn't even know existed until today. Most people probably never see messages that end up there, which means fans don't know you've sent them a message about an Event. I'm having trouble getting around this limitation of Pages.
Pages is that you can not message or send event updates to your audience through their inbox.The message goes through their "update" folder which no one uses.
Facebook Groups allow you to have group structure with group officers and admins and stuff, in order to regulate and facilitate discussion.
Facebook Pages are a promote a business, band, shop and so on...
Facebook groups are to promote a common interest.
Groups have links to related groups, which I think is a great tool. It has the potential to pull in people with a common interest, which is highly useful when you're trying to promote, say, a blog or product.
Once your group has stopped growing you can convert it to a Page
In Groups you can only mail up to 5000.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

PICKING A GOOD WEBHOSTING COMPANY

You want to choose a supplier of reliable service. If your site is down or takes too long to open when visitors try to obtain what can lead to click on your site and move to the next. They will most likely not visit in the future will remember their bad experience. For this reason, it is probably better to take a well-known company that you can check reliable references. There are many small hosting providers offer space for as little as $ 50 to $ 1 per month, but you never know what you get and many of them want you to pay at least a year advance worthwhile.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH CRAIGSLIST

SO I just kept on posting ads on craigslist everyday and watched as my adsense account grew bigger and bigger! At one point I was earning over one hundred dollars a day! The party didn't last too long though, I had earned about six hundred dollars within a two week period when suddenly my little empire came crashing down with one swift press of a delete button from some guy working at craigslist. What I was not aware of was that you’re not allowed to post the same ad to multiple cities. I should have seen that rule because it is right in front of you every time you go to submit a post but hey I was excited. So they deleted all of my ads at once and traffic to my site came to a grinding halt. I messed around with it a little more and generated another hundred bucks or so but the big payday had come and gone. It was nice to make seven hundred bucks just from posting some ads on a free message board but nowadays people are too quick to flag anything that resembles a scam or even worse spam. So that my friends was how I made seven hundred dollars in one month using craigslist.

HOW MANY LINKS PER PAGE

How many links per page?

There is a recommendation from a SEO to give it around 100 links per page. Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number to fewer than 100.

What if you ignore that guidance?

Saturday, April 17, 2010

HOW TO MAKE 5 COLUMNS CSS LAYOUT

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

What are meta tags

What are meta tags?

Meta tags are little bits of HTML code that provide information about a page but are not viewable by the user in a browser. Most search engines examine a page's meta tags, which usually include a page title, description, and keywords, to index the page and help determine its ranking in relevant search results. Although not the only way to elevate your site's search engine rankings, judiciously adding meta tags to your pages can help.

Title:
Title tags appear at the top of the web browser screen when that page is viewed, and in a visitor's bookmarks menu, if he decides to bookmark your site. More important, search engines use titles to index web sites, and often display them in search engine results.

Description:
Your description summarizes your page's content. Some search engines use this description to help categorize your page, and a few even display it in search results!

Keywords:
Though the keywords tag isn't as important as it once was, effective keywords can still influence your search engine rankings. Your visitors won't see your keyword meta tags (which will be hidden in your site code), but search engines may use them to help index your site.

RELEVANT LINKS

Relevant links can boost your search engine rankings.

What is relevant links? Example?

KEY WORDS

For the best results, we recommend testing keywords you think prospective customers might use to find you. But be specific: If your business specializes in auto detailing, don't just test the word cars try keywords interested visitors might use, like auto detailing san francisco. Does your site place well in results for that phrase?

Very broad search terms are not likely to give positive results. There's simply too much competition for general keywords, like shoes or cars. Spend some time thinking about words important to your business. If you're not sure, ask your friends and family, review your competitors' web sites, or think about your own searches. If you were looking to buy a green satin baby blanket, would you search for baby?

You can test as many keywords as you like: Just click the Change keywords link to reveal the keywords field again, enter your new term, then click Search.

Monday, April 12, 2010

HOW TO GET LINK FROM OTHER SITES

Quality links from other web sites to yours can mean not only more customers but also better standing in search results — so you'll want to do what you can to get other great sites to link to yours!

The easiest way to generate links to your site? Ask! Send a friendly letter to trusted consumer groups like your Chamber of Commerce, or offer to exchange links with a complementary business. (If you run a hotel, for example, you might exchange links with the owner of a local car-rental agency.) Talk with reviewers, or post your own reviews or advice on online bulletin boards and other sites — anywhere you can acceptably include a link to your site.

Consider submitting your site to online directories and local listing sites.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE

In the simplest terms, search engines view a link to your web site like a vote: If another site links to yours, it must think your site is valuable. Each link to your site contributes a little bit of value in the search engine's algorithm, which can help boost your site's ranking in search results.

Now, they may be robots, but search engines do know the difference between real links and links created simply to make another site look good. (In other words, it does not pay to ask your friend to fill his web page with dozens of links to your site.) Search engines also keep a virtual eye on the relevance of the links: Does the linking site have a common theme with yours? Is it a popular site itself? Quality links make a difference.

Legitimate links to your site can also help boost traffic, for the simple reason that more potential customers are exposed to your site.

So how can you get more links to your site?

Improve Awarness

Spread the word.

Announce your site to everyone you know. Then encourage your friends to tell their friends!

Word-of-mouth advertising is free. Even better, it usually comes from trusted sources. Let your friends, family, and offline customers know how to find your business online, then encourage them to tell people they know who may also be interested in your products and services.

Turn Visitor Into Customers

Display your contact information.

You built your business web site to connect with prospective and current customers — now make sure they can find you!

Make a great first impression.

You don't need to be a terrific writer to make a big impact. Start with your home page.

When prospective customers visit, they're usually not planning to stick around — which means you don't have much time to make a great impression. Someone who knows nothing about your business should understand what you offer within a few seconds of arriving at your site.

Explain briefly what your business is about: What makes your business unique, and why are you the best at what you do? Don't try to cram all of your business information on one page. Your goal is to pique your visitors' interest and encourage them to explore the rest of your site.

Help search engines find and rank your site.

Optimize for Search Engines
Help search engines find and rank your site.

Submit your site.

After you publish, make sure search engines know you're ready for visitors.

Eliminate orphan pages.

Make sure your web pages are linked together. Search engines review your site by following links from your home page, through all of your subpages — and they may exclude orphan pages, or pages that are not connected to your home page in some way.

Use meaningful titles.

Help search engines — and visitors — understand the purpose of each page.

Submit your website to search engine

Within how many hours you can re-submit your website from the previous submission?

It is 48 hours or within 2 days everytime you resubmit your website.