A Niche of a Different Long Tail
You may not be familiar with the term “long tail keyword”, but it is a simple concept really. If you are one to watch the statistics on your web site (if you’re not, you should), then you would know that sometimes people will find your web site using the most unusual phraseology.
Unusual phrases, the ones that are very targeted and specific, are referred to as the long tail. In short, it is the sweet spot of searchers that know exactly what they want. However, the downside is there are a lot fewer searchers that ride out there on the long tail.
Many Internet marketers make a great income focusing their marketing efforts using long tail strategies. The magic that makes it work is a searcher that knows exactly what they want and a web site that provides it.
Using a long tail keyword strategy is really no different than thinking in terms of niches, and as you may know, “there are riches in niches!”
The Search Engine Heart of the Matter
SEO - Don't Force the Wrong Keywords
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is really not about the search engine at all. It begins with a problem, and someone willing to search out the answer to that problem.
When you think about what product or service you provide, what problems are you answering? The root of knowing what you need to optimize for is based in knowing the problems that people have and the words that they will use to search for an answer.
When we are in a very technical profession, or one that has a lot of industry jargon, the risk we take is optimizing for the wrong words. We optimize the jargon and not what the end user is searching for.
For example, search engine optimization is a very technical term. Don’t get me wrong there are many savvy users out there that know that when it comes to getting your web site to rank high in the search engines, they need a little SEO. However (more…)
12 Days of an SEO Christmas
‘Tis the season for days of twelve, with a partridge in a pear tree, but in the SEO world the twelve days look a little different…
On the first day of Christmas
my SEO Expert says:
a website with a good plan
On the second day of Christmas
my SEO Expert says:
Two title tags
and a website with a good plan
On the third day of Christmas
my SEO Expert says:
Three back links
Two title tags
and a website with a good plan
On the fourth day of Christmas
(more…)
Surviving the Market
Did anyone watch Survivor this last season? The newest Survivor millionaire is 57 year old high school physics teacher, Bob Crowley. During the special announcing, the winner, Bob was asked how he had acquired a piece of string that he used to make a fake immunity idol, and where he had acquired the beads to make it look so realistic. Bob chuckled and said that the string was the tie on one of the challenges that were issued, he just popped it in his pocket, and the beads came from the tribe flag.
I saw this two minute segment of Survivor this past Sunday when I was walking back to my office, this is the only two minutes of this season that I have seen. What struck me was the relevance of what he did to win that one million dollars and what it takes to win one million loyal customers.
Wow what a leap! No, not really. He won because every time he saw something he took note of it, or if possible he put it in his pocket. For those marketing any type of product or service, squirreling away information is by far the most important task of any marketing effort.
I am reminded of how Joe Girard would collect information about each and every prospect that he spoke with and he would add to that information after each additional contact. He referred to this as his intelligence system. Every business needs an intelligence system.
Technically Speaking about SEO
Funny thing happened the other day…
No, really, a funny thing did happen. I realized that not everyone understands what SEO is and why you need a professional SEO company.
Right now you might think that SEO stands for:
S“silly”
E “excuse” to
O “over charge”
Or maybe SEO means something like this:
S “someday”
E “everyone will land”
O “on my website”
Really SEO are three very important letters to your marketing efforts online that stand for “Search Engine Optimization.”
If you already have a website than you probably recognize that building the website and getting people to the website are two VERY different things.
Using Nouns for Maximum SEO
Been a while since you’ve taken an English class? Well, it certainly has been for me, but I recently noticed a technique that I have been using subconsciously to maximize my SEO efforts.
So what’s the trick? I substitute pronouns for nouns. There it is. That’s it. oops, I’ll have to go back and edit that. Dang it, that too… uggh. Pronouns are everywhere.
Don’t remember what a pronoun is? Well, a pronoun is a substitute for a noun. If there are any English professors that can help me out here, that would be great. Some common pronouns are: it, they, them, him, her and those. They are placeholders for something that you described previously.
So how do you use it? (more…)
Holiday Keywords – Are you ready?
Ready for the holidays? I know I am. I’m espcially looking forward to my “special” eggnog. 
Did you know that there are certain keywords that show cyclical trends? Do you know how to check? Google Trends. Now you do. Go check out Google Trends. and play around.
Play around? Yep! Type in something like ‘christmas open restaurant’ and look at the trend – every December there is a huge rush of traffic for that keyword. I mean, who doesn’t want to go out to eat after Christmas dinner got charred on the BBQ?
Here’s some others that might be of interest to you: (more…)
Outsourcing SEO – Outside Your Company Walls That Is!
In today’s global economy, the term outsource oftentimes conjures thoughts of hiring someone from another country, where the the project can be done for 1/4th the cost that it would to have it done domestically. But that is not the outsourcing that I’m referring to – at least not specifically. I’m talking about outsourcing your SEO efforts outside of your company, to an SEO consultant that specializes search engines and online traffic generation.
Two of the most important questions that arise from your intended use of SEO are, “how much are you willing to spend?”, and “are you going to outsource the SEO?”. Why are these important? For starters – they force you to commit to a plan. Without a plan there can be no action, without action you can’t win.
So do you outsource? A lot of it will depend on your budget and your goals. If you have an extremely limited budget, you might be able to hire a part time traffic assistant from another country that can do some off-page link building for you – but there is risk involved with this scenario. Often times the paid traffic generation companies use automated software, or do things that Google and other search engines aren’t really fond of. This could have a negative impact on your search engine rankings. If you can’t outsource, then you might also consider doing the SEO by yourself. The downfall is that this takes away from your business that you run, and takes time to learn and implement. SEO is an ongoing effort, and not a one-time shot, so if you start it, you better be able to finish it, or the time you spent starting the SEO effort will be wasted.
Linking into Relationships
When you examine what websites are linking to your website, what do you find: Directories, social networks, your best friend’s website?
It’s time to take a look at those links and develop a plan to increase the relevance by building relationships. Did you think link building is all about an email asking to exchange links?
There is another person on the other end of that link – not just another website. Go to the contact page, find the phone number, call them, and talk directly to the person running that website and let them know how you might be able to work together.
When you approach link building the same way you approach building all your business relationships you are ten steps ahead of most of your completion.
So, where do you look to put your links?
Destroy Your Keyword Trophy Mindset
Ever get in the middle of conversation about whose is bigger, better, or strongest?
Now I don’t want to get caught up in the semantics of what they’re talking about… that would likely lead us off topic – but ever think about what it’s really accomplishing?
Well search engine keywords aren’t too much different… think about it… “My keyword ranks number 1 on Google, and number 3 on MSN and Yahoo… Beat that!”
This is what I call a “Keyword Trophy”. Where you get some mythical prize if you rank number one for some set of keywords. But is a keyword trophy really worth anything? Sometimes, but usually not.
Let me explain. If you had no competition, (more…)
Dominate Your Industry – Keep Competitors at Bay
What happens when you search for your products or services online…do you find your company listed anywhere? How many competitors are listed before yours? Do you want to beat them out… but can’t afford an SEO consultant? Then read on!
By reading this today you have already taken the first step to Total Domination by realizing that something different will need to happen in order to make it to the top.
Our program will give you one-on-one mentoring, video tutorials, articles of hot topics, and a monthly teleconference that is guided by your questions. The mentoring is presented in forum fashion, where you can ask your Total Domination Mentors questions that are specific to your industry.
No canned answers here. No checklists with vague descriptions.
There are only answers as specific as your questions.
Getting to page one takes a lot more than just well-wishing. (more…)
What is SEO?
There is a lot of confusion of what SEO is and what SEO is not. So I put together a quick video that highlights some of the current definitions of SEO, how I think that SEO and Internet marketing are merging together ( some might say this is SEM – Search Engine Marketing). Check out the video – it’s about 7 minutes long, but worth every second. Let me know what you think!
Get Linked… LinkedIn that is!
Watch this helpful video on all the reasons that a business owner should use LinkedIn, and how to incorporate a LinkedIn strategy into your normal marketing approach.
And after you’ve watched the video, go get your very own LinkedIn account.
Why good content is important
“Charlie bit me” is a youtube video that got more than 6 million views worldwide. Because of its popularity it is has been made the subject of several spoofs which features two not so cute adults trying hard to copy the innocent, unrehearsed acts of the two kids featured in the original video.
The video has been added about 9 months ago, the exact date is May 22, 2007. To date, it has received a total of 7,764 comments and has been “favorited “43,030 times.
As of today, it has been mentioned in 106,000 website. Since google search for the video has reached a certain amount of volume, statistics for the search of the keyword “charlie bit me” has started to show in google trends. (Take note that Google trends only shows graphs when searches for a popular keyword reaches a certain volume)
So popular is the video that the phrase “Charlie bit me” itself has been used by several webmasters and several venture capitalist to make money out of. In fact the mother of the boys commented, “I have noticed that the phrase Charlie bit me is catching on and people are trying to profit of it . . .”
The parents is starting to realize that there is income to be made through utilizing the high volume of traffic that the popular youtube video and the popular keyword “Charlie bit me” has brought. In order not to be left behind by other venture capitalist, the parents are making available to the public the “Charlie bit me” t-shirt series.
The parents did the right thing considering that the video features their kids and they were the ones who uploaded the video. It should be them that should be the first to benefit from the popularity and the high volume of traffic that the video has brought.
Certainly the video is so cute and the British accent adds to its attraction. (Several “Charlie bit me” spoofs are not so cute at all; in fact I would say that they are lame)
If there is one lesson that can be learned from this “Charlie bit me phenomenon” or “Charlie bit me craze” that is that CONTENT IS STILL KING. No matter what other Search Engine Optimization (SEO) gurus say, in the end its still “The content stupid.” Most of “Charlie bit me” fans know about the video through word of mouth. It is quite obvious that people who do not know about the video knew about this through others and not by searching for “funny videos” over the internet. I doubt if the parents of these kid did some advertisement, tried to increase their back links, released several press releases, bought some articles are bought text link or google ads. The “Charlie bit me” video has become so popular because people liked the content. In fact they go crazy over it. It’s funny and it’s cute. Of course I am not underestimating the importance of SEO strategies and techniques, however in the end, high volume sustainable traffic to your site is mainly due to rich content.
Oh by the way, if you really like the video I really recommend that you buy the shirt.
Source: increasing traffic to your site
Meta Tags – Dead or Alive?
Some of you may not know what meta tags are, so let me describe them first, before we delve into their usefulness. Meta tags are some HTML tags that are located in the head section of your HTML page. As an example, right click on the page you are reading and find ‘view page source’ or something similar (every browser is slightly different). Now look for the Meta tags. They should be right near the top.
Meta tags have 2 components to them, a name and a content section. When we are talking about meta tags, as far as SEO is concerned, we really are referring to the keyword and description meta tags. Do you see that the keyword meta tag is a common separated list of words and the description is a statement of what this page is about? Good.
Lets see what all the fuss is about.