The Click Depot Blog

Archive for the ‘SEO Tips and Tricks’ Category

Everybody knows that links can increase your website traffic, just like search engine optimized or SEO content and PPC or pay per click advertising does. When it comes to link building on the fast track, there are a few ways to get results quickly. The key to link building is to think of ways that you can combine SEO content with the sources that are trusted links, which can get you the most relevant traffic.

If you are looking to build links on particular websites that are relevant, always make sure they are trusted links that can be verified by Google algorithms that check for the domain age and user data content. You can get spammed if you are linking to sites that get spammed, so you want to be careful where you build your links.

To consider the 5 simple steps for fast link building, you have to consider that some may work better for certain websites than others, but there are many ways that you can get on the link building fast track:

Article directories:

Some people have found that article directories can help to increase your link building abilities, especially if you have the software programs that allow automatic submission to many of the directories at once. Of course, SEO content is important to get the relevant traffic you need for the best link building.

Social Networking or Bookmarking:

Everybody knows that the social networks are becoming a more popular way for people to communicate quickly. They are also a good way to get exposure for your link and website. These are easy for quick link building because you can set up a free account and get started “socializing” to start your link building quickly.

Blogs or Community Forums:

These are a popular way to start link building quickly. Almost everybody can find blogs or forums that are relevant to their products and services and you can start posting comments quickly and build your link into the comments. The main thing to keep in mind is that you don’t overdo it because you can end up getting spammed. It’s a great way to build back-links and it is simple and doesn’t cost anything.

Outsourcing to Professionals:

There are companies that can build hundreds of links in a matter of hours. These services will cost you a fee, but if they are good links, you can increase the traffic to your website quickly and start making more sales. There isn’t too much effort involved and some of the SEO and Internet marketing companies have access to quick link building tools, which can jump-start your link building.

Gimmicks:

Quick link building can involve any number of gimmicks, from press releases, freebies, lists that can generate a lot of different links and even suing a company everybody dislikes can generate all kinds of publicity. Think of ways that gimmicks work in traditional advertising and use them to help you build links to your website quickly. Even listing your products on Amazon, reviewing them and listing your company background can give you link building on a trusted website.

Image Courtesy: http://dailyseoupdates.com/effective-link-building-tips-key-to-success/

When you want to use flash SEO, you have to keep in mind that flash can be a great tool to put a lot of content in a small space or you can use it for slide shows, videos and more. The biggest problem with flash is that it might not be recognized by the majority of search engine spiders and another thing to consider is that flash SEO should be used sparingly because half of America uses dial-up Internet and the flash portions of your page can take a while to load.

1. Flash SEO needs to be coded so that it is not overlooked by the search engines and you need to be sure that you provide HTML content, too. Clean design, SEO, easy accessibility for a variety of browsers, including the correct functionality for Internet Explorer are important objectives to consider when using Flash SEO. If the flash can’t be read, then the primary content becomes important. Using a JavaScript function called swfObject detects when the browsers are capable of reading flash and when a version of flash player exists the function replaces the primary content with the flash movie. Externalizing the code to display the flash is important for loading speed and accessibility for the spiders.

2. Placement of the flash movie can be important. You don’t want to put it where the typical banner ads are placed, for example, or it might get ignored. It’s bad enough that search engine spiders might ignore it, but you don’t want the visitors to your site to. Usually, the upper left portion of the screen is best.

3. Size is another factor to consider when using flash SEO. The flash shouldn’t take up more than half of the screen. For one thing, you need to have room for the primary content that will be the default for the search engine spiders. Another thing to consider is that you should have important information on your home page, including site maps and other page links for easier navigation.

4. Don’t use flash SEO to sell your products or services. It should be used to highlight the description, but the most important information should be in written content so that your website visitors can absorb the information at their own pace.

5. When using flash SEO, first design your pages as though you aren’t using flash. You have to progressively design your websites starting with your content or the HTML files, then you can add the CSS, which controls the look and feel of the page and finally add the additional features like Flash, JavaScript or to handle anything that might not be handled automatically by the browser.

6. Stay away from full flash SEO web pages. Even if you embed text in the flash movie, it might not be picked up by the search engine spiders and you have to make sure that you are not cloaking text, which the search engines frown on.

7. Consider using a professional website designer that knows how to properly use flash SEO because it can make the difference in your website getting traffic and search engine ranking or not.

Image Courtesy: http://www.sfubiz.ca/misa/?page=CATT

When you are considering SEO tactics, Sitemap is one that is great for websites that have dynamic content, pages with flash or AJAX, new WebPages without many links and has a lot of archived pages that aren’t linked at all, or very well. Basically, Sitemap is a graphical map of your website in one case, which helps customers navigate your website.  The other version is done using XML.

Google gathers information about your website content by using your Sitemap, so this can help with your search engine optimization, assuming you take advantage of optimizing keywords in your text links to your web pages. Your Sitemap provides text based links to your key pages and those can be easier keyword optimized.

The sitemap not only makes navigation easier for your website visitors, but it can also anchor certain pages to certain text links. For example, if you have you several pages you want to link to new products text link, you can link them through your sitemap.

Google recommends the maximum to be 100 text links per sitemap, to make it more search engine friendly, as well as visitor friendly. Certainly, larger websites should link their main pages, but sitemap is recommended for websites, no matter how large or small, it’s a matter of layering site maps for the very large websites, since a single sitemap is recommended for 100 pages or less.

You can find a multitude of free sitemap tools and ones that charge minimal fees, to help with your sitemap creation. These sitemap creation tools can help you build your own sitemap from scratch to optimize your website for the search engines. Sitemaps make it easy for the search engines to find and index all of your WebPages on your website by putting links to every page in one spot. It also helps the search engines to clearly understand what the website is about and what contents are on the pages.

Your sitemap should maximize keywords and contribute to keyword density on the pages. They should always be able to be linked to from your home page or index page because that is where the search engines will look for it. You want links that point to every page in your site and list descriptions so that visitors and the search engines can understand what they can expect to find on each page.

Many people might not realize the importance of sitemaps, when it comes to search engine optimization. While they are familiar with keywords, optimizing them in titles and text links are important, when it come to what the search engines will look for when searching for the content of your website. Through careful planning, not only will your sitemap be a great navigating tool for customers, but will be a part of keyword optimization for your search engine rankings.

If you are unsure how to create a SEO sitemap using the creation tools, most webmasters can do it quickly and easily for you. The important thing is that you take advantage of this tool, which can help move you up the search engine results.
Image Courtesy: http://www.lastclicknews.com/

Banner advertising can do only so much - and it is not the only way to massive traffic. You have to use your mind, think about your strategy, and work in conjunction to create an impressive advertisement for customers. Everyone that tries to enter this kind of advertising may fall behind on their revenue attempts if it is not done right. If you want to make the best approach, it is imperative to create an ad that attracts your desired customers while you place it on the right website. All of this seems easy, but it takes time to research the information you need to digest to make the right decision.

Target the Specific Market

Banner advertising requires constant market research to ensure you meet the right eyes at the right moments. A moment of your banner’s interactivity can change a person’s view of your business. In fact, majority of today’s online businesses use banner advertising to secure new clientele in different markets. You can approach specific markets for test runs or actual marketing efforts; concentrate on the purpose of creating the banner advertisement before you make a decision. According to Direct Marketing News, market research is the most vital aspect of creating an effective banner ad for massive traffic. The traffic’s response to your message can help you determine which websites can create a stream of prospects to your site in a strategic manner.

Research Websites

There are thousands of websites online, but you need to know which one can determine the future of your business. Some business owners make the mistake of placing banner advertisements on any website that will accept their offer. Do not stand in the crowd with some of the loneliest decisions regarding your business. You should contact a professional local internet marketing firm to manage the outcomes of your banner advertisements.  Use smart, strategic steps in finding websites that cater to your prospects as well as influence their purchasing decisions. With the right websites on your side, your prospects will follow your every word in your banner. The massive traffic can also create an impact in their minds that you are the only one that can provide products as well as services that can better their lives.

Create an Impressive Ad

Creativity is an everlasting approach to managing a marketing plan online. Experienced professionals can remove the weight of the world by handing your market research, hiring professional marketers, and integrating the skills you need to manage the outcome of your marketing efforts. An impressive ad can complete three of obstacles that lie before every banner ad owner online:

Engage customers in seconds
Build traffic to your site
Improve conversions
Increase page rank

The possibilities are endless if you take the time to learn about your options. Banner advertisements are only as good as their creators; contact an experienced firm to help you achieve your goals while improving your reputation online. With the right help, you can accomplish all of your marketing goals in a reasonable time.

Image Courtesy:  www.playthetrend.com/advertising.php

Everybody knows the first rule of marketing “it always pays to advertise.” That is the reason why it is necessary for any farsighted businessman to make sure that everybody around him knows everything about his business, his products and most of all, his website. However, you do not have to spend thousands of dollars on advertising on the Internet. Some easy and simple strategic moves can be followed quite effectively to ensure that your target market knows everything about your business while keeping well within range within your marketing and advertising budget.

Blog Creation

A good market buzz starts with a simple blog. Get people to know more about your company and your products by setting up a blog. There are plenty of blogging systems, which can be utilized without your paying a single red cent. It is always a good marketing strategy to write a blog, which is personalized instead of having a formal sales letter advocating your product. What you need to do is entice the readers to communicate with you, and make them think you know them and they know you. This sort of person to person communication can only be done when you respond to their queries.

User-Friendly Website

You can also link your website with a number of other business websites as well as your own. Make your browser user-friendly by adding features, which can allow them to interact with you as well as with other readers. Make sure that your website can be navigated very easily, and loads up really fast.

RSS Feed

Keep your visitors as well as your future potential clients updated with what is happening in your company. This can only be done by an RSS feed; if you can manage to get out a newsletter to tell them what is going on in your particular field of interest, this shows a level of professionalism, which is definitely quite a good marketing strategy.

Quality Content

The search engines like content, which is rich in keywords. An ordinary viewer coming onto your website for the first time definitely does not like content, which is filled with lots of keywords, which the Webmaster considers to be good enough to entice traffic to his site. What he needs is good and useful quality content, which is amusing enough, informative enough, and interesting enough to make a visitor come to that site again and again. Good quality content should be renewed at least once a week and the old content placed somewhere on the website in an index.

Have a Chatty Forum

Everybody likes to talk; and when you give everybody an opportunity to give their own opinion, as well as declare their own views about some particular thing or product, you are going to be extremely surprised how many people come onto your website, just to read somebody else’s opinion, and give their own views.

Reciprocal links

Always remember to have links which open up very easily, especially when you are responding to some particular prospective client’s mail or query letter. In the same manner, any link to any other well-established website which has relevant content is definitely a good idea.
Article directories:
Write an informative article upon your product and then add your link at the bottom of the article. Submit this article to different article directories.
Try these website promotion strategies out now!

Image Courtesy : www.higginstraffic.com

Do you know what in-text advertising is? You’ve probably seen it. Just about any article you read online these days is going to have a double underlined phrase or two peppered throughout the article, and you’ll notice that when you hover your mouse over these phrases, a little “pop up” advertisement comes up enticing you to click and go to another website. For example, if the phrase that’s double underlined in the article is “weight loss,” you may find that when you hover your mouse over that double underlined text, you’ll come up with a particular advertisement for a popular weight-loss program.

Okay; so that’s what in-text advertising is, but do you use it? And if you do, do you use it correctly? How do you use in text advertising correctly? Here are several key tips you should follow when you use in-text advertising.

First, when you write your copy, make sure that the text used as in-text advertising is relevant to what you’re writing. In other words, both other businesses and consumers themselves are going to get savvy very quickly if you simply try to load your copy with irrelevant keywords that have nothing to do with what you’re actually saying, just so that you’ll get more advertisers.

Second, make sure you use in-text advertising SPARINGLY. A double underlined phrase or two per paragraph is probably a little bit much. Try to go with no more than three or four very targeted phrases for every 500 words you write. Again, people are going to nix your copy very quickly and quit reading you altogether if they feel like they’re being hit over the head and simply being “sold” something.

And third and finally, write your copy as though you’re not using in-text advertising at all. I’ll say that again; write your copy as though you’re not using in-text advertising at all. That means, what you write should be interesting to read on its own merits and nothing else. That’s true for a couple of reasons. Number one, you insult your readers’ intelligence if you think you can simply “advertise” to them without giving them interesting content. Not only that they won’t click on your in-text advertising, but they’ll also quit reading you altogether. And number two, your readers are much more likely to click on your in-text advertising and go see what it’s all about if they feel good about you — which means they have to feel good about what you write, too.

So remember, don’t insult your readers’ intelligence, and write your copy as though you’re not doing any in-text advertising at all. Make the in-text advertising you do match the copy you’re writing, so that it’s relevant and interesting to your readers. And that should give you more interest and more click-throughs, so that this type of advertising does exactly what it should do – that is, make you money.

Image Courtesy: http://www.dotperformance.com/service.php?Online-Advertising-21p

One of your goals with your ecommerce site is to get high search engine rankings. Getting ranked good on search engines is a key to getting traffic to your site, which will in turn, bring you sales and profit. Improving your search engine rankings and getting a top spot is not always easy, especially when you are first starting out. With 7 easy steps, though, you can optimize your ecommerce site.

Step 1: Create Individual Pages

You will probably need to go back over your website and make some changes when you first start the process of optimizing your website. You should have a page dedicated to each of your products. This will allow you to create unique content for each product and take advantage of the ability to capitalize on more keywords.

Step 2: Unique Content

Now that you have your website set up with each product on its own page, you can begin to get into content. Content plays a large role in search engine rankings, but just having a few lines of text on a page doesn’t do it. You have to have content that is unique and that is valuable. You likely have product descriptions, but these are not unique. If you sell a common product then chances are that same description is being used all over the internet. Reword the descriptions or better; write up a short article about the product.

Step 3: Cross Referencing

When you are creating the unique content you should cross reference other products that you sell. This links the pages of your website in a very natural fashion.

Step 4: Keep Adding Content

Content is very important to your search engine rankings, so do not stop adding new, fresh content to your website. You can add a blog that will allow you to keep adding new content on your site on a regular basis. You can also just add in articles where you see fit. Whatever you do, just add content often.

Step 5: Links

Content is not the only thing that is considered during search engine rankings. You should also have good quality links to other websites. When you link up to websites that have rankings then that will help you in your rankings.

Step 6: Get Reviews

Reviews not only add content to your website, but also encourage buyers. You can ask current customers to review the product for you and give them a coupon for their next purchase.

Step 7: Go Social

Social networking sites are amazing. The potential for a business person on these sites is amazing. You should join as many as possible. Make sure you stay active, add friends and post content. This is free advertising and it allows you to link up to these popular sites.

Optimizing your website does not have to be tedious. You just need to make sure that you are doing everything you can. You have to stay with it as it is an ongoing process. The internet is very fluid and things change everyday, so stay on top of things and your website should end up on top.

image Courtesy: http://www.netlogical.com/

Social networking has increasingly become an accepted form of marketing for businesses. While it isn’t the same type of marketing as putting out a radio or television ad, it can net great results. It is usually done in a more subtle manner than traditional manner, but it is still effective nevertheless. How exactly do you break your way onto the social networking scene? Let’s look at 10 easy ways to get your foot in the door.

1. Sign up for all of the major services- There are a lot of options out there for social networking, but you might want to limit your efforts to the big players in the industry. Sign up for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and maybe even YouTube. These sites are going to cover the vast majority of action that goes on with social networking. Staying involved in these sites will occupy most of your free time as well.

2. Nudge your way into the conversation- Don’t just explode onto the scene with a lot of annoying posts that make others think you’re trying to sell them something. This is the fastest way to turn people off. Just join the conversation slowly but surely. Try to contribute in a way that will help everyone. As you get more conversation going, you can add more and more.

3. Start your own blog- This is a great way to get involved in social media. Others will begin to read your blog and comment on your blog posts. As a result, they will link to your blog if they like what you have to say. This tends to make you look like an expert in your field.

4. Use Facebook to your advantage- Getting involved in Facebook is a fantastic way to relate to others. You can show people what type of person you are and what things you enjoy. Become a fan of a product or service and let others know what you recommend. You can join groups and conversations with others and get to know them.

5. Network with others through LinkedIn- LinkedIn is a great way to meet other professionals in your field or a related field. You can set up your profile which is basically like a resume that lets others know your accomplishments. You’ll be able to interact with them and help them with any questions they might have.

6. Return the favor on Twitter- When you use Twitter effectively acknowledge others by following new followers. They will appreciate the gesture and begin to feel that you care. When someone says something good, give them credit by re-Tweeting their post. This will go a long way towards building report with your followers.

7. Try your hand with multimedia- While it might not be for everyone, you could try making video or audio for others to enjoy. If you know how to make a video, post it up on YouTube. This is a great way to help others with an instructional video or with new information.

8. Share useful documents- This is a great way to get more followers and friends in the blogosphere.

9. Meet contacts in real life- There are many real life events for fellow Tweeters to meet in person. When you can, go for a visit.

10. Adhere to the normal rules of life- Don’t ever treat anyone differently just because they’re online. You never know when you’ll run into them in real life.

Image courtesy : http://www.digitaldesignadvice.com/2009/design-news/social-network-design/

Becoming more popular as a way to get more exposure to your website, 3 way linking originated around 2007. The problem is that 3 Way Link Exchanges can be confusing so it is easiest to think of it as triangular linking.

The way that 3 way linking works is that website A links to website B, website B links to website C, and website C links to website A. The reason for this linking structure is that Google and the other search engines see all of the links as one way links, so it doesn’t appear you are trying to move your website up the search engines with excessive links. This seems to work for a short period of time, at least until the search engines run their algorithms and get suspicious.

The thing that has been emerging lately is a new kind of 3 way link exchange, where you don’t even know you are being involved in a 3 way link exchange. Where it used to be that you might want to link to a relevant subject website, and then they would link to yours, now they make it appear that way, and the next thing you know you are linked to a site that is just a 3 way link site.

The bad thing about this is that the search engine algorithms may pick this up as manipulating and not only move you down the page, but might cite you for bad behavior and you end up with less exposure than you had before.

Many of the webmasters are not that crazy about 3 way linking, primarily for this reason. They believe in good, old-fashioned search engine optimizations, and there is something to be said for that. If you are legitimately coming out with a good website that is search engine optimized, you don’t have to worry about manipulating your positions.

The other thing about 3 way link exchanging is that there is typically a monthly fee that goes on and on. Some think it is worth the $50 or so to participate in the 3 way link exchange, and sometimes it is if it drives that much in business to your site that you would not ordinarily get.

The most dangerous part of 3 way link exchanging is if you don’t want to be affiliated with a 3rd party link that has a bad reputation, that is not relevant to your site, or worse, may be a lewd or questionable site that would actually steer people away from your website by association or calling your trustworthiness into question.

When it comes to 3 way link exchanging, always be sure you know the sites that you will be 3 way linking to, or it could hurt your online business instead of help it. There are rights and wrongs to everything in life and a wrong move in 3 way linking could get your site suspended from the search engines.

Maybe the webmasters are right-build a good website that is search engine optimized and you will work your way up the search engine results without the cost or hassle of 3 way linking.

As we explained in our previous post, autoresponders are indeed any online or offline business;s best friend. OK, but how do you go about getting started in your Email marketing journey? I have bad and good news. The bad new first - it’s not that easy actually and there are some key decisions you will need to make to make sure you do this right. The good news will come at the end of the article.

Autoreponders come in three flavors depending on who sends out the email.

Desktop Based: You buy a software that installs on your desktop, just like your Office softwre. This inclues Mailoop and PrimaSoft. With these, the email is sent out via your chosen ISP - usually your high speed internet provider such as Cox or Comcast. These are good if your email list is small - few hundreds at the most. If your email list is in the thousands, then you are asking for trouble if you adopt this type of software, unless you are super careful. The problem starts with some subscribers of your mailing list using the “This is Spam” buttons on their emails instead of cleanly unsubscribing from your email list using the unsubscribe link. Once your ISP sees a lot of these spam complaints, they just stop sending your emails or notify you that you need to stop sending your emails and you are pretty much stuck at that point.Most ISP’s limit the number of email that you can send out at once. This is usually limited to a few hundred emails. ISP’s also do not offer much of a service guarantee for your email delivery like some of the hosted solutions do.

Server-based: These are basically software or scripts that you install on your website space. Now the email goes out from your hosting provider’s servers, not your ISP. Leading providers are AutoResponse Plus and phpList (Free). In this case as well, you run into similar issues. Hosting providers have a limit of the number of emails you can send out. This is either a per day or per hour limit. Site5.com for instance has a 500 emails per hour limit and SiteGround.Com has a 400 emails per hour limit. There are some others that are more generous. Third Sphere Hosting, for example, allows 20,000 emails per day, but that’s unusual. Now 500 per hour might sound like a lot to you. But really, over time, it’s easy to get into lists that are in the thousands. Just offer a freebie on your website worth a couple of hundred dollars and you could have a few hundred subscribers overnight. That can be good and bad though. On one hand , you have a list of potential buyers now but on the other hand, a lot of those people will never really buy from you but are there just for the freebies. You really can’t do anything about that problem though. Everyone involved with Email faces that issue. You will have to send email to all your list subscribers at least initially before you can segment them into ones that are VIP’s for you and the regualar masses. Coming back to limits on email delivery, once you exceed these limits, and sometimes, even before that, your hosting provider will ask you to move to dedicated hosting, which is usually hundreds of dollars per month. At that point, most will want to consider using a hosted solution.

Hosted Solution: There are way too many to even list here. The leading providers are Aweber, GetResponse, Mailchimp and iContact. These provides own dozens, and some even hundreds of servers that they use to send out their emails. If one of the servers gets in trouble for spam complaints (which are often not valid), then they can still use others to send out their email. Your email has a much higher deliverability chances when you go with these providers. The downsite, well you get to pay a hefty fee for the reliability promise. The cost can be between $15/month to several hundred dollars per month depending on the size or your list and the frequency of your emails. Cost is not the only issue though. Most of these providers require that each of your subscribers double opt in to your list. In other words, if you bring in a list from either of the above options to a hosted provider, your subscriber base will have to confirm that they want to remain part of your list. For many, including good subscribers, they may just decide not to renew their subscription out of laziness. And that could cost you dearly in the long run.

Our recommendation - go with a hosted provider FROM THE BEGINNING. It can cost a bit higher, but you will have your bases covered and potentially save a lot of time and trouble in the long run.