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Its All in the Title
Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. You may be the most intelligent writer in the world, and have breaking information, which, if people actually read it, would benefit them and their business.
Problem: most, if not all, publishers of articles don't have the time to read the whole article unless they are "captured" within 7 seconds. So that tells us that, when submitting your articles to newsfeed services, publishers, bloggers, and the like, you have about 7 seconds to capture their attention (and I personally believe that is a liberal amount of time - my experience tells me more like two seconds).
Example: An excellent article was written just today, if you were to be as fortunate as me and have read the content of it. But the title almost instantly created a "deletion response" from me. That is a big problem - if the title of your article does not capture the attention of the potential publisher, then what is the point?
Titles must be captivating, yet relevant as well to the content of the article. Major mistake would be to post an article with a title that has nothing to do with the content - but that is a completely different discussion.
In summation, please spend time on an effective title - and that will get your article read and spread across the Internet.
For further information, please visit ArteWorks Business Class at http://www.arteworks.biz.
Matt Foster is President and CEO of ArteWorks Business Class, located at http://www.arteworks.biz.
Search Engine Optimization - A Must
As you surf the web take a look around at many of the sites you see. Do you notice anything that seems strange? Well, let me point it out to you. There are hundreds of thousands of web sites that just don't get much traffic. Some of these sites house hundreds of articles, reviews, tutorials, tools, products, forums to mention a few things, yet still they do not receive large amounts of traffic. What is their problem? They have the content. What is left?
Choosing your Meta-Keywords
This article assumes you already know what a 'meta-tag keyword' is and know a little about their importance to search engines. In this article I will attempt to explain the art of choosing the most appropriate and best performing keywords for your web pages.
PageRank and How It Gets Assigned
We know that each and every website page is assigned a Google Page rank, based upon a mathematical algorithm. Pages rank on a scale of 0 (zero) the lowest, and 10 (ten) the highest. Linking between websites both internally and externally pass a value or Page Rank.
Onpage Optimization: Essential for Effective Offpage Optimization
Onpage optimization is the process by which various elements on an individual web page are structured so that the web page can be found by the search engines for specific keyword(s) or keyword phrases.
Optimum SEO Keyword Density ? A Real-Life Case Study
So you've built your website, you know what keywords you want to target (i.e. what words your customers are searching for), and you're ready to write your copy. You've been told that you should use your keywords frequently so that you appear in search results for those words. But what does "frequently" mean?
SEO Training - Avoid Making this Costly Mistake!
SEO training can be overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of factors that go into search engine ranking on today's major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. When designing a web site or a web page for high search engine ranking,avoid making this one mistake that alone could prevent you from achieving a top ten ranking on your target keywords. What is this one costly mistake? Read on to find out.
Is Reciprocal Link Exchange Dead?
The sun seems to be setting on the world of reciprocal link exchange. Sites that major on that may have to switch to a new paradigm, or go down like the titanic.
7 Steps to Highly Relevant, Search Engine Friendly, and People Useful Web Site Content
The task is to build a Content Rich Search Friendly and People Friendly Web Site Quickly. These 7 Steps will show you how with about 10 Hours work you can build over 50 pages of rich, Search Engine relevant content for your web Site
What is The Google Sandbox Effect?
In the age of fair competition you may find it hard to believe that a search engine may hinder the appearance of a new website. This is what is currently believed to be happening on more web servers today. Some programmers have viewed Google as uncomfortable to rank newer websites until they have proven their viability to exist for more than a period of "x" months. Thus the term "Sandbox Effect" applies to the idea that all new websites have their ratings placed in a holding tank until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence.
Article Marketing: Fox in the Competitor Hen House or Chicken Little?
I recently was asked by an author to remove a free content article from a client web site where we had posted it (with several others from different authors) to increase topical relevancy at a site that fit the article perfectly.
Pay Per Click Versus ?Organic? Search Engine Listings - The Pros and Cons and Best Uses for Each
What's the difference?
How To Make Your Website More Successful? (Part II)
In part I of our series of how to make your website more successful we already showed you some important tricks to build a more successful website. This time we are going to expand the scope a little to further improve your website and to make it work harder for you on the Internet.
Forget SEO ? It?s All About Conversion!
Which SEO hat do you wear? Is it white or black? Or perhaps it's a subtle shade of gray. Well, wherever you are on this spectrum, if you are like 99% of the SEO-fixated webmasters out there, you are doing all you can to get visitors to your site. Where you used to optimize your keywords meta tags, you now worry about anchor text and XML site maps. So, you finesse your site, schmooze the algorithm du jour and begin to climb the slippery search engine rankings pole. But this is where you have to leave your SEO tricks behind and start thinking conversion. Whoa there! Conversion? That's all about making sales on shopping sites. My site's a forum! I don't sell anything. What has conversion got to do with me? Everything, my friend. Everything?. SERP Conversion You want visitors to come your site, right? That's why you climb greasy SERP pole, after all. (And why you lay awake at night wondering when the next Florida, Hilltop or Bourbon algorithm earthquake is going to hit.) But what does it matter if you reach the peak, but no one clicks through to your site anyway? The fact is that you have to convert prospective visitors even before they arrive. You have to pique their interest, tweak their curiosity and make sure they click your link and not the other guy's. And all you have to use are words. No technical tricks will help you now ? your only tools are plain ol' words. The SERPs will show words from two of three places. Two of these you can control and one you can't: 1.Your title tag. 2.Your meta description tag. 3.A directory description. (For example, Google is known to use DMOZ descriptions in their SERPs, and Yahoo uses their directory descriptions in theirs.) Now, there's not much you can do about how Yahoo or DMOZ editors describe your site, so don't worry about number 3. But do what you can do: Place your value propositions clearly in 1 and 2, and use them to lure searchers into your website. So you have to convert people before they even get to your site. But that's not all?. You want them to stay, right? Flash Conversion No, this has nothing to do with being blinded by bright lights on the road to Damascus. Nor am I telling you to go and make a 100% animated website. This "flash" is that split second, that tiny window of opportunity that opens up when a searcher arrives at your site and decides whether they have actually found what they are looking for? or not. Typically, you'll have a couple of seconds to persuade the new visitor to stay and hang out. That's all you get. It's the ultimate in speed-dating. So, how do you wow your "date"? Do you show him a page of scraped "content" interspersed with Adsense ads? Not if you want this to be a lasting relationship. Follow these tips and be sure to impress your "date": 1. Have a clear theme Ranking high for "blue widgets"? Then be sure your visible title, copy and images are clearly focused on them. 2. Have a clean design Imagine you are taking a first date to a movie. Do you pick her up wearing your pajamas in a dirty, trash-filled car? Or do you clean the car, wash your face and dress to impress? Of course you want to impress her, so you make sure you look (and smell) good. It's the same with your site: Clean design, a nice text size and pages that don't scroll from here to eternity are going to float your first-time visitor-date's boat. 3. Write clearly and focus on your "date" Waffle on about yourself and your date will get bored. She wants you to be interested in her. And in terms of your site, that means giving her what she wants to know as quickly and succinctly as possible. This comes down to your ability to write and communicate. So, if you are like Steve Martin in "Roxanne", make sure you get a someone else (a copywriter) to compose the lines to wow your "date" for you. OK, so let's say you have successfully wooed your first-time visitor date. He's here and he has decided to stick around. You're going steady, getting to know each other a little more. That's all you want, isn't it? No, it isn't! You want to pop the question, of course! Getting hitched You've made all this effort and spent money on getting your "date" this far, so you want to get the most out of your investment, right? You want to hear those sweet words, "I do": I do? want to click your Adsense ads. I do? want to become a forum member. I do? want to buy that cool digital thingy. So how do you turn a whirlwind romance into a successful proposal? Try these ideas for size: Have clear navigation You want to make your date dizzy with excitement, not frustration! Make sure you have clear, consistent, well-labeled navigation and make your visitor-date's time with you a pleasure, and not a reason to reach for the Advil. Have a clear proposition What do you want your visitor to do? Buy something? Sign up for something? Join something? Whatever the point of your site is, it does have a point, right? So don't beat about the bush, and don't hold back waiting for the right moment: Make your "proposal", and make it clear and direct. Happily Ever After? You thought that was the end of the story? Wait a minute, it's not over yet! I thought you were in this for a long-term relationship, not a one night stand? I know, you were thinking that having made all that effort while you were dating, you could ease off now that you're "married". But don't you know that the real rewards start here? So what are the secrets of a long, blissful relationship with your visitors? 1. Feed them! You convinced him to come visit once. But how often will he come back if all you give him are the same old leftovers? Cook him up something juicy and delicious, and have him salivating for more: Enliven your content with new, relevant pages and, not only will you set the search engine robots drooling, but you will also find you have a hoard of visitors coming back for seconds. And in this age of fast-(visitor)-food creation tools called blogs, there's really no excuse anymore. 2. Shower them with gifts Everyone likes a gift - and not just on birthdays, anniversaries and at Christmas: Money talks, and if you are selling anything through your site, then discounts and other offers to previous visitors and customers will draw them back like magnets. Throw in tempting freebies as well and you will have a potent marketing mix. 3. Send them "love" letters Anyone who has been in a long-distance relationship (like my wife and I were for a year and a half), knows that if you can't be together, the next best thing is a letter or email. For your website, this means an interesting ezine that is light on sales pitch and rich in information. 4. Start a family! Not literally! But you can create a "family" atmosphere by adding a forum where your visitors can interact with each other ? not just with you and your site. People are social animals, so use a forum to keep them coming back. OK, so perhaps I overstated it a little in my title. SEO is not dead, so don't forget about it quite yet. Just remember that it will only get you so far: If you want to actually achieve anything with your site, then you need to focus on conversion like a laser.
Absolute & Relative Links How Do They Rank?
The question for this article is whether or not you should use "absolute url's" or "relative url's"? Not only that, this article researches whether or not Google ranks these methods differently.
Keywords are the ?KEY? to a Popular and Profitable Web Site
Keyword Research will reveal answers to 3 critical questions:
Webmaster-Friendly Google Operators
There are a lot of operators (commands you can enter in the Google search box to return specific results) you can plug into Google in order to find what you want. For webmasters and website owners, however, a few particular operators can be especially useful. Operators can be used to locate potential link partners, evaluate current inbound links, and determine what pages of your website still need to be added to the index. Here are the operators we think you should know:
Answers Count - Matching Keyword and Phrase Density
What's more important to your business success - the question or the answer? Certainly, you want your questions to reflect what you are trying to find out. Obviously, your questions should be easily understood. Most definitely, you're hoping for some positive responses. But, what you really need to do is count repetitive keywords and phrases found in your respondents answers.
Breaking the Myth About Page Rank (PR)
The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting traffic to your site. There are plenty of companies who promise to send traffic your way. Sadly, most of this traffic is not qualified. Yes, your hit counter will move higher, however, if its not qualified, you may find you have unhappy visitors to your site. Unhappy visitors will not click on your ads or purchase your products.
The Sandbox Effect
What once many people thought they had a penalty, is now being called the Sandbox Effect and is causing new web sites not to rank very well in the search results of Google, not even for the least competitive phrases. Meaning that a filter is being placed on new web sites and cannot rank very high for most words or phrases for a certain amount of time.
A Simple White Hat Technique To Get Indexed By Google
Everybody knows that getting indexed in Google is getting more and more difficult each day and every body is looking for that edge over the competition.