By online business consultant, author and expert Biana Babinsky
Learn How to Use Different Online Marketing Techniques
Complete Step by Step Online Marketing Course teaches you how to use business blogging, article marketing, search engine optimization and many other techniques to promote your business online.
Are you in love with an online marketing technique? So much so that you refuse to use any other marketing methods? Do you refuse to believe that a particular strategy is not a good fit for your business? Do you continue to use it against all odds, even though it's clearly not working?
Some business owners truly believed that search engine optimization was the end all and be all of online marketing. They spent their entire marketing budget optimizing and re-optimizing their web sites to the exclusion of all other online marketing strategies. Inevitably, search engines tweaked their algorithms enough to reduce the rank of these highly optimized sites. Naturally, these business owners had to scramble and re-optimize their web sites yet again because search engines were their only source of visitor traffic.
Other business owners really liked exchanging links with similar sites. They spent untold hours finding and managing their link exchange program. Eventually, some of their link exchange partners decided to go out of business, and all of the links from those sites evaporated. Other sites decided to change their focus and removed the links since they were no longer relevant. These links were lost as well.
Yet another group of business owners really enjoys online networking. Instead of concentrating on their business, they spend most of their time posting to miscellaneous online groups, answering questions, and chatting. This leaves no time for any other online marketing techniques.
What would work better for all these business owners is the same thing that has worked well for countless generations of investors: diversify. Split your marketing time between several different online marketing techniques - blogging, newsletter publishing, article marketing, pay per click search engines, search engine optimization, etc. Here are three reasons why this is the best way to get the most bang out of your marketing dollar:
Using more then one marketing technique ensures that your business is not overly dependent on a single source of traffic. If all you do is search engine optimization, and a search engine drastically changes your search engine rankings, 80% of your traffic will be gone, and so will be 80% of your sales. Don't let this happen to you.
Using different online marketing techniques exposes you to different slices of your target market. You can get exposure to segments to which you would not have been exposed otherwise.
For example, some of your customers network online, but don't use search engines to search for products they need. Others prefer to search for resources in search engines, but don't have time to engage in online networking. If you use both online networking and search engine optimization as a part of your marketing plan you are able to reach out to both types of customers.
Using a variety of online marketing techniques strengthens your marketing message. According to some studies, a buyer needs to be exposed to your marketing message 7 times on average before they finally decide to buy from you.
If you publish a blog, write articles and send out a newsletter, you are effectively using three different ways to be exposed to potential buyers
Evaluate your online marketing strategy. If you are spending over 70% of the time on any one online marketing technique, take the time to learn a few more marketing methods and apply them to your business.
About the author: Biana Babinsky is the online business expert who has helped many business owners attract more web site customers, bring in more online publicity and increase the bottom line. Visit http://avocadoconsulting.com/free_newsletter.html to subscribe to her Effective Online Marketing Newsletter full of marketing tips and receive Biana's Top 5 Ways to Increase your Online Sales special report absolutely free
Source : http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/articles/b1/in_love_marketing_technique.html
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Strategic Internet Marketing
Use Internet Marketing to Get More Clients
I met Sue at a recent networking event. She is an author and speaker, and promotes her products by speaking at events and selling her products after the talks. Sue has a web site, whose primary purpose is to sell her products and make more people aware of her expertise. She isn't happy with the web site, though. "I have a great product, but I only had 2 sales in the last twelve months from the site. On the other hand, I can't keep enough inventory on hand for event sales! Something isn't right." So the coach in me had to ask a few questions and offer suggestions. "Tell me," I said, "how do you market your web site?" "Market?" she said. "I don't do much marketing. I have a great product, I am an accomplished author and well-known expert. People should be able to find me and buy from my web site."
Many business owners put a web site on the Internet and think that "if you build it, they will come." They, of course, being web customers. You have many potential clients out there, looking for someone with your expertise, looking for your products and services. However, it would be difficult for them to visit your web site and buy from it, if they didn't know it existed.
Help your customers find you - create a good Internet marketing campaign to reach your potential customers and make them aware of benefits of hiring you. Here are three main online marketing areas to get you started:
Your Expert Web Site - It should be user friendly, make the benefits of hiring you or buying your products crystal clear, and promote you, your services and your products.
Keep adding to your web site content. Write articles of interest to your target market, start a blog, and keep expanding your product line. Fresh content helps you with search engine positioning and keeps your potential customers coming back.
Curious how user friendly your web site is? Ask a potential or current customer to evaluate your web site.
Newsletter - It should be highly relevant to your target audience. Publish a newsletter that gives your readers a lot of valuable information, but at the same time leave them hungry for more of your expertise. For example, a professional organizer's newsletter can offer ten tips for getting kids organized for back-to-school, advice which helps the reader while inspiring confidence in the organizer's knowledge and experience.
Networking - Don't forget about networking. Online networking is becoming increasingly prevalent. You can network through many online networking communities, such as Ryze.com, LinkedIn.com Ecademy.com, and many more. Each one has a different focus, feel, and dynamics. Try several and see which one is the right fit for you. Online networking is an excellent way to connect with your target market.
When you are selling your services online, your web site is the image you project to the world. Often, it is the first thing your potential customers see before they decide to hire you. Newsletters and networking are there to help you build relationships with your potential customers, and help them learn more about you and your business. Strategic Internet marketing is the combination of user friendly web site, newsletter, networking and other online strategies that you use to market your business effectively.
About the author: Biana Babinsky is the online business expert who has helped many business owners attract more web site customers, bring in more online publicity and increase the bottom line. Visit http://avocadoconsulting.com/free_newsletter.html to subscribe to her newsletter full of marketing tips and ideas and join her online business coaching program at http://www.MarketingSalad.com.
Souce : http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/articles/b1/strategic_internet_marketing.html
I met Sue at a recent networking event. She is an author and speaker, and promotes her products by speaking at events and selling her products after the talks. Sue has a web site, whose primary purpose is to sell her products and make more people aware of her expertise. She isn't happy with the web site, though. "I have a great product, but I only had 2 sales in the last twelve months from the site. On the other hand, I can't keep enough inventory on hand for event sales! Something isn't right." So the coach in me had to ask a few questions and offer suggestions. "Tell me," I said, "how do you market your web site?" "Market?" she said. "I don't do much marketing. I have a great product, I am an accomplished author and well-known expert. People should be able to find me and buy from my web site."
Many business owners put a web site on the Internet and think that "if you build it, they will come." They, of course, being web customers. You have many potential clients out there, looking for someone with your expertise, looking for your products and services. However, it would be difficult for them to visit your web site and buy from it, if they didn't know it existed.
Help your customers find you - create a good Internet marketing campaign to reach your potential customers and make them aware of benefits of hiring you. Here are three main online marketing areas to get you started:
Your Expert Web Site - It should be user friendly, make the benefits of hiring you or buying your products crystal clear, and promote you, your services and your products.
Keep adding to your web site content. Write articles of interest to your target market, start a blog, and keep expanding your product line. Fresh content helps you with search engine positioning and keeps your potential customers coming back.
Curious how user friendly your web site is? Ask a potential or current customer to evaluate your web site.
Newsletter - It should be highly relevant to your target audience. Publish a newsletter that gives your readers a lot of valuable information, but at the same time leave them hungry for more of your expertise. For example, a professional organizer's newsletter can offer ten tips for getting kids organized for back-to-school, advice which helps the reader while inspiring confidence in the organizer's knowledge and experience.
Networking - Don't forget about networking. Online networking is becoming increasingly prevalent. You can network through many online networking communities, such as Ryze.com, LinkedIn.com Ecademy.com, and many more. Each one has a different focus, feel, and dynamics. Try several and see which one is the right fit for you. Online networking is an excellent way to connect with your target market.
When you are selling your services online, your web site is the image you project to the world. Often, it is the first thing your potential customers see before they decide to hire you. Newsletters and networking are there to help you build relationships with your potential customers, and help them learn more about you and your business. Strategic Internet marketing is the combination of user friendly web site, newsletter, networking and other online strategies that you use to market your business effectively.
About the author: Biana Babinsky is the online business expert who has helped many business owners attract more web site customers, bring in more online publicity and increase the bottom line. Visit http://avocadoconsulting.com/free_newsletter.html to subscribe to her newsletter full of marketing tips and ideas and join her online business coaching program at http://www.MarketingSalad.com.
Souce : http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/articles/b1/strategic_internet_marketing.html
5 Quick Tips for Creating an "Effective" Website
by Harmony Major
Although I wouldn't call myself a website design guru, I know what works and what doesn't in creating a successful website. I'm a super-fast learner, and I want to pass on my knowledge of website design to you, in only a few short paragraphs. Of course this isn't meant to be a full-fledged course on website design -- I hope to tell you the main things that you should be doing to design an effective website.
First of all, what determines whether or not your website is "effective?" Whether or not your visitors come, are pleased by what they see, and return! And, whether or not they feel your website is excellent enough to tell their friends about, write about in their ezines, or submit to any of the "Best of the Web" awards out there is a good starting point. Here are the things that your website absolutely MUST HAVE to be successful in the home business world:
1.) An easy-to-understand navigational system.
Can your visitors get around easily, or are they easily lost? Do you have a link to get back to your home page and/or "table of contents" on EVERY page or only a select few? What if someone decides that your website is so great they decide to link to one of your secondary pages?
Ten times out of eight, other Webmasters WON'T tell you when they've linked to you. So, if they link to a page that isn't connected to your home page ... how are they supposed to find it?? It doesn't occur to most people to take the base of the URL they've visited. 90% of the time, you've just lost a potential customer.
2.) Your name and email address listed on your website.
Having an email address is just not enough. Who are your visitors supposed to address their mail to, and exactly WHAT are you hiding from?? What's the point of NOT putting your name on your web pages? Do you just forget, does it not occur to you, or are you afraid people are going to be able to figure out where you live and come stalk you just by having access to your first and last name??
Whatever the reasoning, it's absolutely ridiculous. Not having your full name plainly listed on your website is ruining your credibility and the credibility of your business. So, let me break it down for you ...
JUST DO IT! If you don't plan to list your full name and email address on your website as the BARE MINIMUM, you may as well pack it up now and call it quits.
3.) A compatible screen size for most, (if not all), browsers.
800x600 pixels is an ideal standard for your web pages. You can control the width of your website by using tables, and setting the width of the outer table to the maximum size. So in this case, you'd set the table width to 600 pixels. If you're using percentages instead of straight pixel width, set the percentage to no more than about 85-90%.
4.) A reasonable background image and color scheme. Those orange and green backgrounds with bright red text are just NOT with it -- no matter what the amateurs say. Stick to a background/text color combination that's actually READABLE. That makes sense, right?
If you have to squint just to read the words on your pages, your background is WAY out of line, and your site needs a major color scheme makeover! Use BLACK text, or very dark colored text on a WHITE or very light colored background. Save the white on black backgrounds for pages that DON'T have a lot of text on them.
But, if you feel that you absolutely MUST have those stars, triangles, or dinosaurs crowding your background, make sure that you set the image as the background for the page, and put a plain WHITE table on every page that will contain text. If done right, this can be a very pleasing addition to any web page.
5.) Use mood colors.
This one isn't mandatory, but it can be helpful when setting the tone of your website. For example, green is usually referred to as a "concentration" color. So, on pages that have a lot of text, use a green background pattern (with your text in a white/light colored table) or green highlights throughout the page. But, be careful ... dark green is seen as a money color, while the regular, "standard" green is the concentration color.
You can use color to your advantage in website building, to make your visitors feel energized, relaxed, focused, more ready to make a purchase, or almost any other effect. You're only limited by your imagination! (And, of course ... color blindness.) ;-)
If you follow those five basic website design tips outlined above, designing your first website (or touching up an existing one) shouldn't be such a horror!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harmony Major specializes in helping ordinary people start profitable, money-making, Internet home businesses. http://homebasedheaven.com/riches/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source : http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/articles/webmaster117.htm
Although I wouldn't call myself a website design guru, I know what works and what doesn't in creating a successful website. I'm a super-fast learner, and I want to pass on my knowledge of website design to you, in only a few short paragraphs. Of course this isn't meant to be a full-fledged course on website design -- I hope to tell you the main things that you should be doing to design an effective website.
First of all, what determines whether or not your website is "effective?" Whether or not your visitors come, are pleased by what they see, and return! And, whether or not they feel your website is excellent enough to tell their friends about, write about in their ezines, or submit to any of the "Best of the Web" awards out there is a good starting point. Here are the things that your website absolutely MUST HAVE to be successful in the home business world:
1.) An easy-to-understand navigational system.
Can your visitors get around easily, or are they easily lost? Do you have a link to get back to your home page and/or "table of contents" on EVERY page or only a select few? What if someone decides that your website is so great they decide to link to one of your secondary pages?
Ten times out of eight, other Webmasters WON'T tell you when they've linked to you. So, if they link to a page that isn't connected to your home page ... how are they supposed to find it?? It doesn't occur to most people to take the base of the URL they've visited. 90% of the time, you've just lost a potential customer.
2.) Your name and email address listed on your website.
Having an email address is just not enough. Who are your visitors supposed to address their mail to, and exactly WHAT are you hiding from?? What's the point of NOT putting your name on your web pages? Do you just forget, does it not occur to you, or are you afraid people are going to be able to figure out where you live and come stalk you just by having access to your first and last name??
Whatever the reasoning, it's absolutely ridiculous. Not having your full name plainly listed on your website is ruining your credibility and the credibility of your business. So, let me break it down for you ...
JUST DO IT! If you don't plan to list your full name and email address on your website as the BARE MINIMUM, you may as well pack it up now and call it quits.
3.) A compatible screen size for most, (if not all), browsers.
800x600 pixels is an ideal standard for your web pages. You can control the width of your website by using tables, and setting the width of the outer table to the maximum size. So in this case, you'd set the table width to 600 pixels. If you're using percentages instead of straight pixel width, set the percentage to no more than about 85-90%.
4.) A reasonable background image and color scheme. Those orange and green backgrounds with bright red text are just NOT with it -- no matter what the amateurs say. Stick to a background/text color combination that's actually READABLE. That makes sense, right?
If you have to squint just to read the words on your pages, your background is WAY out of line, and your site needs a major color scheme makeover! Use BLACK text, or very dark colored text on a WHITE or very light colored background. Save the white on black backgrounds for pages that DON'T have a lot of text on them.
But, if you feel that you absolutely MUST have those stars, triangles, or dinosaurs crowding your background, make sure that you set the image as the background for the page, and put a plain WHITE table on every page that will contain text. If done right, this can be a very pleasing addition to any web page.
5.) Use mood colors.
This one isn't mandatory, but it can be helpful when setting the tone of your website. For example, green is usually referred to as a "concentration" color. So, on pages that have a lot of text, use a green background pattern (with your text in a white/light colored table) or green highlights throughout the page. But, be careful ... dark green is seen as a money color, while the regular, "standard" green is the concentration color.
You can use color to your advantage in website building, to make your visitors feel energized, relaxed, focused, more ready to make a purchase, or almost any other effect. You're only limited by your imagination! (And, of course ... color blindness.) ;-)
If you follow those five basic website design tips outlined above, designing your first website (or touching up an existing one) shouldn't be such a horror!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harmony Major specializes in helping ordinary people start profitable, money-making, Internet home businesses. http://homebasedheaven.com/riches/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source : http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/articles/webmaster117.htm
How Much Hosting Space Do You Need?
Copyright 2002 Herman Drost
Many web hosts try to sell you a large amount of web hosting space that then costs you a lot each month. However, you may not need this much space. Have you ever calculated just how much disc space (MB) your web site uses? Do you really need an expensive hosting solution for your web site?
For my first web site, I purchased 20mb of disc space and wondered if this would be enough as I added pages to it. Well, recently I checked the size of this site which had grown to over 20 pages. To my surprise the size was only 3,269KB. This means it only uses a little over 3Mb of disk space.
Most of my friends sites also only use 2-3Mb for their sites. Therefore it is not necessary to purchase a large amount of space for a small site (if 20 pages = 3Mb, then 20Mb = 140 pages approx). Are you paying TOO much for the actual space you need?
How Do You Calculate The File Size Of Your Web Site?
1. First you need to understand how file size is measured. The smallest unit on a computer is a bit. One bit is one electronic on or off pulse. 8 bits strung together make one byte. One byte of information can put a letter, such as “B” on your screen.
If you put 1024 bytes together and then you have one unit of information called a kilobyte. Put 1024 kilobytes together and you have a megabyte. (Most floppy disks hold around 1.4 megabytes of information). Most of your graphics and web pages are measured in bytes or kilobytes.
2. To determine your total site file size, right click on the root folder where your web site is housed – this will not only give you the total site size but also how many files and folders are contained in your site.
3. If you use an editor, such as FrontPage, go to the reports view, click on the site summary and you will get a reading of the total site file size. In Dreamweaver, just use the method in No 2.
Prepare To Expand Your Hosting Plan
You may want to add pages, graphics, features eg scripts, databases etc, to your site in the future. Begin with a small hosting plan at first (even 5mb is enough to start out with), and then expand it as you add new features.
Check with your web host, if you can easily upgrade your hosting plan as you grow your site. You don´t want to go through the hassle of changing hosts every few months.
Once you have determined your total site file size, check what hosting plan you have purchased and how much disc space has been allocated for your site. If you are only using 3mb of disc space but are paying for 100mb, then you may want to switch hosting plans and save yourself a ton of money each year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herman Drost is a Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of iSiteBuild.com Web Site Design and Low Cost Hosting (http://www.isitebuild.com)
Subscribe to the “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original articles. subscribe@isitebuild.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source : http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/articles/webmaster143.htm
Many web hosts try to sell you a large amount of web hosting space that then costs you a lot each month. However, you may not need this much space. Have you ever calculated just how much disc space (MB) your web site uses? Do you really need an expensive hosting solution for your web site?
For my first web site, I purchased 20mb of disc space and wondered if this would be enough as I added pages to it. Well, recently I checked the size of this site which had grown to over 20 pages. To my surprise the size was only 3,269KB. This means it only uses a little over 3Mb of disk space.
Most of my friends sites also only use 2-3Mb for their sites. Therefore it is not necessary to purchase a large amount of space for a small site (if 20 pages = 3Mb, then 20Mb = 140 pages approx). Are you paying TOO much for the actual space you need?
How Do You Calculate The File Size Of Your Web Site?
1. First you need to understand how file size is measured. The smallest unit on a computer is a bit. One bit is one electronic on or off pulse. 8 bits strung together make one byte. One byte of information can put a letter, such as “B” on your screen.
If you put 1024 bytes together and then you have one unit of information called a kilobyte. Put 1024 kilobytes together and you have a megabyte. (Most floppy disks hold around 1.4 megabytes of information). Most of your graphics and web pages are measured in bytes or kilobytes.
2. To determine your total site file size, right click on the root folder where your web site is housed – this will not only give you the total site size but also how many files and folders are contained in your site.
3. If you use an editor, such as FrontPage, go to the reports view, click on the site summary and you will get a reading of the total site file size. In Dreamweaver, just use the method in No 2.
Prepare To Expand Your Hosting Plan
You may want to add pages, graphics, features eg scripts, databases etc, to your site in the future. Begin with a small hosting plan at first (even 5mb is enough to start out with), and then expand it as you add new features.
Check with your web host, if you can easily upgrade your hosting plan as you grow your site. You don´t want to go through the hassle of changing hosts every few months.
Once you have determined your total site file size, check what hosting plan you have purchased and how much disc space has been allocated for your site. If you are only using 3mb of disc space but are paying for 100mb, then you may want to switch hosting plans and save yourself a ton of money each year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herman Drost is a Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of iSiteBuild.com Web Site Design and Low Cost Hosting (http://www.isitebuild.com)
Subscribe to the “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original articles. subscribe@isitebuild.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source : http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/articles/webmaster143.htm
Is Your Website Optimized for Search Engines?
By Scott Buresh
For the technically inclined, there are numerous places on the web to get detailed, in-depth information on how to properly optimize a web site for the best possible search engine rankings. However, many people don't care about the technical aspects of search engine optimization- they just want to know what is wrong with their site (and how to fix it). What follows is a practical guide that covers some of the most basic search engine issues. It is in no way intended to be comprehensive, but it should help the average site owner determine whether their site is optimized, and if not, how to make some simple changes to improve their search engine rankings.
Issue #1- The Title Bar
On your homepage, what does the title bar say? If you use Internet Explorer, this is the blue bar at the extreme top of the window that displays your page (it may include the words "Microsoft Internet Explorer" at the end). Does your company name appear here by itself, when you have more important keywords to emphasize? Worse yet, does it say "untitled"? This area should contain the most important keywords you see on your homepage (Don't have any text on your homepage? See issue #2).
To check the rest of your site, click on any link from your homepage and see if the words in this title bar change for each page in your site. They should - and each title bar should contain the most important keywords from their corresponding page. Note: Very long keyword strings in the title bar should be avoided - six words or less is optimal. Also, words in the title bar should not repeat more than once, and identical words should not appear next to one another.
Issue #2- Content
Search engines all try to list sites that contain good content. Translation - you need words on your pages, not flashy graphics. This text should contain the most important keywords that your potential customers would use to find you on a search engine. If you have very few or no words on your pages, it is a good idea to add some, ideally around 250 per page.
For aesthetic reasons, this is not always practical, but even 100 well-written words can have an impact on rank. It is also important that you make certain that the words are written in a language the search engines can read. Using your mouse, bring your cursor down to the text on one of your web pages. Clicking and holding down the left mouse button (make sure you aren't near a link) see if you can highlight just one or two words of the text. If you can, everything is most likely fine. If nothing happens, or you can only highlight a large block, it is most likely in graphic form. Graphic text needs to be replaced by standard html text to allow the search engines to read it. Your web expert should have no problem understanding what you require, and the transition should be fairly simple and affordable.
Issue #3- Meta Tags
Some people believe that meta tags are the Holy Grail of search engine optimization. Unfortunately, their effectiveness is limited (many engines ignore them completely), but they can play a limited role in determining rank on some engines. To see if your site has meta tags, go to your home page. Click the "view" command at the top of the browser window. From the pull-down menu, select "source". This should open up another window that shows your code. Much of this may seem indecipherable, but there should be two commands there (usually near the top of the code). One of these says meta name="description" content= and will go on to describe your company and products, and one says meta name="keywords" content= and goes on to list applicable keywords for your site. If these tags are missing, have your web expert insert them.
Issue #4- Links
Link popularity has become increasingly important to search engine rankings, with 19 of the top 20 engines using it in their ranking algorithm. Simply put, search engines give a ranking boost to sites that have incoming links from quality, related sites. There are numerous free tools on the web that will allow you to see what sites link to yours (just type "free link popularity check" in your favorite search engine). If you don't have many sites linking to yours, it may be time to start a link building campaign. This is where you find quality, non-competing sites in your industry and ask them if they would like to exchange links. An additional benefit of link exchanges is that these links can bring you additional, highly targeted traffic.
Conclusion
Although following the above guidelines will by no means guarantee you top page rankings for your keywords, fixing one or more of the problems should have a very positive impact on your search engine rankings. For the volumes of potential customers that a search engine can send to your site, it's certainly worth the effort.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott Buresh is co-founder and principal of Medium Blue Internet Marketing. For more helpful tips, visit his site. For a free search engine analysis, please Click Here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source from : http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/articles/webmaster25.htm
For the technically inclined, there are numerous places on the web to get detailed, in-depth information on how to properly optimize a web site for the best possible search engine rankings. However, many people don't care about the technical aspects of search engine optimization- they just want to know what is wrong with their site (and how to fix it). What follows is a practical guide that covers some of the most basic search engine issues. It is in no way intended to be comprehensive, but it should help the average site owner determine whether their site is optimized, and if not, how to make some simple changes to improve their search engine rankings.
Issue #1- The Title Bar
On your homepage, what does the title bar say? If you use Internet Explorer, this is the blue bar at the extreme top of the window that displays your page (it may include the words "Microsoft Internet Explorer" at the end). Does your company name appear here by itself, when you have more important keywords to emphasize? Worse yet, does it say "untitled"? This area should contain the most important keywords you see on your homepage (Don't have any text on your homepage? See issue #2).
To check the rest of your site, click on any link from your homepage and see if the words in this title bar change for each page in your site. They should - and each title bar should contain the most important keywords from their corresponding page. Note: Very long keyword strings in the title bar should be avoided - six words or less is optimal. Also, words in the title bar should not repeat more than once, and identical words should not appear next to one another.
Issue #2- Content
Search engines all try to list sites that contain good content. Translation - you need words on your pages, not flashy graphics. This text should contain the most important keywords that your potential customers would use to find you on a search engine. If you have very few or no words on your pages, it is a good idea to add some, ideally around 250 per page.
For aesthetic reasons, this is not always practical, but even 100 well-written words can have an impact on rank. It is also important that you make certain that the words are written in a language the search engines can read. Using your mouse, bring your cursor down to the text on one of your web pages. Clicking and holding down the left mouse button (make sure you aren't near a link) see if you can highlight just one or two words of the text. If you can, everything is most likely fine. If nothing happens, or you can only highlight a large block, it is most likely in graphic form. Graphic text needs to be replaced by standard html text to allow the search engines to read it. Your web expert should have no problem understanding what you require, and the transition should be fairly simple and affordable.
Issue #3- Meta Tags
Some people believe that meta tags are the Holy Grail of search engine optimization. Unfortunately, their effectiveness is limited (many engines ignore them completely), but they can play a limited role in determining rank on some engines. To see if your site has meta tags, go to your home page. Click the "view" command at the top of the browser window. From the pull-down menu, select "source". This should open up another window that shows your code. Much of this may seem indecipherable, but there should be two commands there (usually near the top of the code). One of these says meta name="description" content= and will go on to describe your company and products, and one says meta name="keywords" content= and goes on to list applicable keywords for your site. If these tags are missing, have your web expert insert them.
Issue #4- Links
Link popularity has become increasingly important to search engine rankings, with 19 of the top 20 engines using it in their ranking algorithm. Simply put, search engines give a ranking boost to sites that have incoming links from quality, related sites. There are numerous free tools on the web that will allow you to see what sites link to yours (just type "free link popularity check" in your favorite search engine). If you don't have many sites linking to yours, it may be time to start a link building campaign. This is where you find quality, non-competing sites in your industry and ask them if they would like to exchange links. An additional benefit of link exchanges is that these links can bring you additional, highly targeted traffic.
Conclusion
Although following the above guidelines will by no means guarantee you top page rankings for your keywords, fixing one or more of the problems should have a very positive impact on your search engine rankings. For the volumes of potential customers that a search engine can send to your site, it's certainly worth the effort.
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Scott Buresh is co-founder and principal of Medium Blue Internet Marketing. For more helpful tips, visit his site. For a free search engine analysis, please Click Here.
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Source from : http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/articles/webmaster25.htm
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