Generate Traffic, Leads and Sales With Video
If your website is not structured incorrectly it will affect your rankings. Google and other search engines find websites based on links. External links refer to links pointing to your website from other sites whereas internal links refer to links contained within your site. If your site architecture doesn’t include links to all your pages search engine crawlers won’t be able to find them.
What’s the correct architecture for your site?
Have you ever visited a web page where you’ve had to scroll past the large header banner or ads to read the content?
Google recently made a page layout algorithim improvement where it rewards sites that display content above the fold. When an internet user searches for information they want to see it right away rather than having to scroll horizontally or vertically to find it.
7 ways to create a web page layout that is visitor and search engine friendly
Since the year 2000 I’ve been using article marketing for traffic generation by getting lots of backlinks and gaining high search engine rankings. Since the Google Farmer Update article marketing has evolved but not died.
The old way of article marketing
In the early days of article marketing you could simply submit your article to a number of article directories and many website owners and ezine publishers would republish your article. This would generate lots of traffic and backlinks back to your site because the search engines would reward you with high rankings. After the Google Farmer Update sites containing duplicate or low quality content got downgraded. For instance Ezinearticles (one of the top article directories on the Web) lost a lot of its traffic because many of their articles contained thin content.
The new way of article marketing
Did you know that your web site images get indexed and ranked by the search engines?
If you correctly optimize the images on your web site they can achieve high rankings. For example if you enter “horse” in the Google search box you’ll see several horse images for the top results. When you click on any of these images it will take you to their respective web sites. Image optimization gives you a leg up on your competitors who may not have implemented this strategy.
How to optimize your web site images?
1. Optimize the file name
Use the keyword that describes the image in your file name. Instead of naming your horse image “image1” name it “horse.jpg”
2. Optimize your description
Search engines only read text therefore include your main keywords in the image description (alt tag). Make sure it clearly describes your image (and not something else). False use of this tag may alert the search engines you’re trying to trick them.
<img src="horse.jpg" alt="horse picture">
3. Optimize the image title tag
Example
<img src="horse.jpg" alt="horse picture" title="horse">
4. Optimize your content
The web copy surrounding your image also affects the position of your image in Google’s image search. So you would place the horse image within the copy containing horse content.
5. Include the width and height attributes
Larger images tend to do better than small images so include width and height dimensions to show search engines the size of the image.
<img src="horse.jpg" alt="horse picture" title="horse" width="640" height="480">
6. Optimize the web page
If you optimize your web page for a specific keyword it will do better in the search engines than a page that doesn’t have that focus. Using too many keywords in your web copy will dilute the ranking power for each keyword.
7. Use high quality images
If your image gets listed at the top of the first page it should be crisp and clear so visitors will want to click it to view the image on your web site.
Go through the images on your web site to make sure they are correctly optimized. It may give a boost to your current search engines rankings.
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Are you always checking your web site rankings?
Is your traffic dependent on maintaining top rankings?
Do your rankings convert into sales?
Attaining top search engine rankings doesn’t always translate into a successful online business as there are multiple factors influencing a visitor’s decision.
Here are 5 reasons why top rankings don’t guarantee success
1. Search engine ranking formulas change
You may enjoy top rankings for a while when suddenly your site disappears. This is because search engines constantly change their ranking formulas.
2. Competing web sites
Your rankings may drop due to other sites competing for the same top position. If your only source of traffic is from the search engines you may suddenly have no sales and be out of business if you lose your top position.
3. Geo targeted search results
If you enter “shoes” in the Google search box local business companies are displayed in the search results in Google maps and the Google ads on the right side of the page. This is because search engines know your location by your IP address and will provide results that are beneficial to you.
The same happens when searching within your Google or Yahoo account. You’ll receive personalized search results based on your preferences. Google is always trying to make searches more targeted so you quickly receive the information you seek. The rankings you see from your desktop may not be the same as what others see.
4. Top rankings don’t mean more traffic
It’s easy to achieve top rankings for keywords no one is searching for. The search engine company you hired may give you a list of all the keyword phrases that received first page rankings. These keywords are useless if they don’t increase the number of visitors to your web site.
5. Top rankings don’t equal sales
If your web site looks unprofessional it will turn away your visitors. Some other factors that influence conversions include:
Instead of constantly checking your rankings evaluate the performance of your web pages to convert visitors into sales.
Also read How to Optimize Your Google Maps Listing
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In my previous article I explained how to optimize blog titles. Your content should also be optimized so it attracts search engine spiders and keeps visitors on the page.
7 Steps to Optimize Your Blog Content
1. Include your keywords
The keywords used in your blog title should be woven throughout your blog content. Be sure the first paragraph contains your keyword phrase. This is because search engines typically index content at the top of your web page first. Don’t repeat your keyword so many times that it sounds strange when you read the content out loud.
For subsequent paragraphs weave your keywords into the content naturally.
2. Split content into paragraphs
It’s better to split long paragraphs into smaller ones so they are easier to read. Include sub headlines and make use of bullets throughout your blog content.
3. Give your visitors what they expect
The purpose of your content is to expand on the title. Don’t get off the subject as it will drive your visitors away. Sometimes writers just ramble on without providing any actionable content. Make sure you provide at least one good tip your readers can act on.
4. Tag your content
Your Word Press Blog allows you to enter tags after adding content. This helps search engines to find your content. Enter the main keywords used in your title/content separated by commas.
5. Create title and description meta tags
Word Press automatically adds the title meta tag however it doesn’t add description or keyword meta tags. The description meta tag is what visitors see under your title in the search engines. An attractive description that supports the title could make the difference whether a visitor will click on your web site url or not.
Keyword meta tags are not used by the major search engines anymore but still include them for the smaller search engines.
To make it easier to add title, description and keyword meta tags, install the headspace plugin. It allows you to customize the meta tags for each post.
6. Provide a call to action
After reading your blog content visitors are ready to take action. Capitalize on their preparedness by providing a call to action at the end of your content. Introduce your product, service or subscription to a newsletter and the url of your offer.
7. Proof read your content before publishing
Spelling and grammar mistakes make your blog appear unprofessional and cause visitors to click elsewhere. Before publishing your content check it with a spell checker, read it aloud to yourself or get someone else to edit it. Word Press allows you to save it as a draft so you can edit it before it goes live.
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The key to successful article writing is to not to write superficially but to spend a more time researching and thinking about your topic and its content. Often times you quickly write an article, only to discover it only got read by a few people.
There is so much junk content on the Net these days it’s no wonder the search engines are constantly refining their algorithms to filter out the junk so searches can be more targeted and return high quality results.
Don’t just write for the search engines
Optimizing your content for the search engines is important however if your content sounds and looks out of place when read you won’t retain your audience. Your main focus should be to write for your readers. A well written article will naturally get picked up and published by people looking for in-depth content.
It will also have a longer life because an authority article carries more weight than a superficial one. It tends to stand out from all the scraped content you see on a lot of sites and blogs. This scraped content has often just been regurgitated by another writer so it appears in a different format.
My Secret Strategy for Writing Quality Content
The biggest challenge I have is to find the time to write a well thought out article. I overcome this by writing the article over a period of days. Depending on how much time I have, I’ll write for 15-30 minutes segments each day until the article is completed. If I have more time and/or my creative thoughts are flowing easily I’ll write more.
Once I’ve finished writing the article, I’ll go back and proof read it to check for spelling mistakes, grammar and perhaps rewrite some sentences to make them read better.
Tip
Review the content you’re writing by looking for ways to improve its quality then monitor its effectiveness. If you submit your articles to EzineArticles dot com you can track how many visitors your articles receive. You may be surprised at how many more readers you’ll get and more sales you’ll make.
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If you want to attract a continuous stream of NEW visitors to
your website without spending a dime on advertising pick up a copy of
my new ebook”Article Marketing Strategies“…
to receive immediate and long-term traffic to your web site.
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO
