Why Blogging is the New Internet Marketing Technique

July 5th, 2008

5 Reasons Why Blogging is the New Internet Marketing Tool

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s.  It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page.  What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun.  As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential.  Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1.Blogging is simple.  The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging.  No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse.  It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product.  If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic.  In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims.  However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising.  Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience.  You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free.  Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free.   Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up.  Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility.  As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs.  As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs.  As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market.  Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts.  Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is.  But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base.  Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail.  Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market.  In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site.  Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site.  If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription.  An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite.  Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address.  Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers.  Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences.  Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared.  In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc.  Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject.  Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today.  As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base.  Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Search Engine Optimization [SEO]

June 18th, 2008

 

Search Engine Optimization[SEO]

 Search engines are one of the chief ways that an Internet user find search results for Web sites. This clearly means how a Web site with high and good search engine listings can notice a excellent increase in traffic.

Everyone needs to get those kind of good search engine placements. But unluckily, many Web sites materialize poorly in search engine rankings or sometimes may even not be listed at all in search engines as they fail to deem how search engines do work.

 particularly, submitting a site to search engines is only a part of the aim of getting good search engine positioning and visibility. It is most important to make a Web site ready to get through “search engine optimization.”

Search engine optimization means to ensure that your Websites pages are freely and easily accessible to search engines and are clearly focusing in a way that can help your website to get better and improved chances of getting found on search engine results.

This next segment provide information, techniques and good basis in the fundamentals of search engine optimization. By use of this information where suitable, you may hit visitors who formerly missed your website.

The aim of any search engine strategy should not be on a primer in ways to trick or “spam” the search engines. In fact, there are not any “search engine secrets” that will promise a top listing. But there are a some number of miniature changes you can formulate to your site that can sometimes turn out big results.

Search engine optimization for any website needs lot of hard work which can yield in top search engine rankings  which is a slow process if done in a mannered way achieving the targeted results for any keyword in search engines is difficult and patience needed hectic work that needs to be performed by any experienced seo experts for gaining desired results .

Getting search engine rankings in search results is now made ease for website owners who intend to promote their business online by any seo company or seo firm  providing seo services.

Seo services are now mostly outsourced to developing countries like india where seo work is outsourced to seo companies in india providing  seo services  for reasonable cost and effective results.

Website Traffic: Do you really need it?

June 15th, 2008

Web traffic is one among the major needs of an online business owner. A web site will never exist and will not profit as well if traffic is not coming in.  When you have a good flow of web traffic, you are guaranteed to attain success and profits.

Its just like having a store. It doesn’t matter how good you are as a salesman or if you have the best products, if no one comes in your store, they may never know. And even if you advertise, if your marketing strategies are weak, it could be buried beneath the other marketing schemes of other stores. This is especially in the Internet where there is stiff competition.

New users are prone to commit mistakes on just wanting traffic or even joining a particular program that offers many web traffic promos. Most of them are useless. If a particular website does not make enough money, they will give up easily.

However, most still try to pursue the business and eventually learn from the mistakes they made. They do not only need web traffic but a laser targeted web traffic. This means that the visitor will visit your site without actually forcing them because they are interested in the business that you are offering.

The target web traffic will give you success. They visitor will love visiting your website because your site have all the things they want.

The following tips will be very useful in attracting targeted web traffic:

•    Start up by promoting your website. You can pay for some advertiser that can successfully promote your website.  Begin realizing that a big market that has high levels has many affiliate programs in the e-market business. If you are a beginner that sells books or software online, the easiest and cheapest way to promote your business is thru click bank. There are many successful e-book sellers who use the program.

•    Add more quality content to your website as it will permanently increase your traffic level. Many search engines use this technique. You are not even required to create your own contents but you can use the free articles available online. You only have to choose an article that is related to your topic and is a public domain.

•    You can also create your own web content, that also provides others with great information. You can put a small resource box at the end of the article that can be opened as a link to your particular site. In doing this, it is like putting the entire search engine as your link. This will increase the websites that are linked to you.

•    Build you own mailing list. This is an effective way to have loyal visitors to your site. You should publish quality contents to your website to be credible. The visitors will trust your website and will be the first choice during a visit to the net.

•    You should use the pay-per-click engines, as it will effectively increase your traffic. You only have to choose the keywords carefully; with keywords that are more specific, more visitors will visit your website. Keep in mind that you should get more visitor than what you pay for the clicks. You can track all the keywords that are entered to your site. Choose the most researched topic and place it as the keyword. This will bring you more web traffic and profit as well.

•    Blogs are useful. It is the most effective way to links the visitors to your site. It is also useful in marketing and research purposes that drive the traffic to the pages of your site. You should make a blogset or 10 blogs. It should contain at least 250 words per blog and should use keywords that are specific or related to the target keywords.

•    Pay-per-click is always an effective way to increase your visitors. You will be high-ranked because of the certain keywords that search engines look for. There are different portals of traffic that you can buy. Check the quality of the traffic they provide and if it can give you more profit.

•    Do a press release by advertising your website. Participate in trade shows, seminars and special conferences. Learn more about the online traffic generating strategies. This can be a good alternative aside from pay-per-click engines.  You can also use magazines and newspapers to advertise your website.

You need web traffic to profit a lot. You can use all the methods above to run your website successfully. Check some information over the internet to supply you with more knowledge about it. Learn more and be successful in you website business.

Black Hat Seo VS White Hat Seo

June 4th, 2008

Ethical SEO = White Hat
Search Engine Spammers = Black Hat

For those who haven’t heard, for the past year or two some have labeled different forms of search engine optimization by different hat colors. Those who practice what some refer to as “ethical” SEO are the White Hats (like the good guys in the movies), and those who some refer to as “spammers” are the Black Hats (like the bad guys in the movies). Those who are not quite as pure as the driven snow but who aren’t quite as… umm… aggressive as a full-fledged “search engine spammer” are sometimes referred to as Gray Hats.

But are these labels helping anyone, and do they really mean anything? Certainly, the SEO methods I use would put me into the White Hat category. Lucky me. Does this make me better than those in the Black Hat category? I guess the question would be, better at what? It doesn’t make me a better person, nor does it necessarily make me a better SEO. It might make me better at not getting a site banned from the search engines, but then again, most Black Hats know that their sites will eventually get banned and have figured that into their business model. So it’s not really a question of good or bad, like the hats seem to imply.
Different Business Models

I’ve had the unique opportunity of meeting SEOs of every hat color in forums and in person. For the most part SEOs are all just regular people trying to run their businesses, hoping to make some money, and trying to do what’s best for their clients. What I’ve noticed, however, is that even though we may all call ourselves SEOs, our clients and our business models are truly like night and day. So instead of having a different word for what we do, it has been easier for many to use the hat thing to differentiate ourselves.

I have the luxury of picking and choosing my clients, and I simply won’t take a client that will have to compete with tons of sites that use Black Hat SEO techniques to survive. You know the types I mean, they’re the kind you see in your email trash folder every morning. Basically, if they spam you by email, you can pretty much bet they’re spamming the search engines as well. The reality is that there is a TON of money to be made if you can figure out how to get high rankings for those types of sites. Some can make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month using their Black Hat techniques for their sites. That’s pretty impressive, and it’s also big business. Some of the brightest minds in the industry are Black Hat spammers and proud of it! They don’t even mind being called Black Hats or spammers.
Different Approaches and SEO Techniques

What those guys do as SEOs, however, really has nothing to do with what I do as an SEO. Sure, we’re all trying to bring targeted search engine visitors to our sites, but that’s where the similarities end. I don’t have to keep up with every tiny algorithm shift, or the latest technique that the engines haven’t caught onto yet. It’s completely irrelevant to what I do. In my biz, I simply have to be aware that search engines exist, understand how and why people use them, and fix my clients’ sites so that there’s a good fit between the site, the user, and the search engine. White Hat SEO is about 1/3 science and 2/3 art, whereas Black Hat SEO is probably the other way around. The art for White Hatters comes into play by finding the perfect balance between user and search engine. The art in Black Hat SEO comes into play when dreaming up new techniques to use in the engines, when the current one stops working.

Both White Hat and Black Hat SEOs have their place. Lots of people are indeed looking for the types of products and services that Black Hatters specialize in. There is a huge demand for their black magic. As much as I hate lousy search results, as long as the Black Hats are doing their thing to the types of sites that I wouldn’t be seeking out anyway, then it really doesn’t bother me; it’s the search engines’ problem to get rid of it.
Website Goal - Stable Business or Quick, Risky Fix?

The important thing to note, however, is that most sites don’t need to resort to Black Hat SEO.

It all depends on what the Website owner’s goal is. Do they want quick fixes and throwaway domains for the chance of a temporary big payoff, or do they want a stable business that takes a lot of time and energy, but which pays off handsomely over time? Neither one is necessarily right or wrong — just different. It’s just like the stock market or gambling in many ways. If you’re willing to be extremely aggressive, there’s a chance you’ll make a ton of money. However, there’s usually even more of a chance that you’ll lose a ton also. It really comes down to how much of a gambler you are.

For a company looking for long-term success, there is absolutely no reason to gamble with their site. I cannot stress this enough. When I’ve written in the past on how spamming the search engines is bad and unnecessary, this is what I’m talking about. Most people don’t have Websites in industries that need to go the Black Hat route. Those that go to the “dark side” anyway often regret it later. (They like it while it’s working, of course!) But seriously, even though it may take more lead-time, the White Hat method is a lot less stressful, and quite frankly a whole lot easier. I can take a look at almost any site and know exactly what needs to be done to it to help it achieve long-term success.

I think even most of the really good Black Hatters wouldn’t even recommend their techniques for most brand-name companies and the like. It’s simply not worth it, and in nearly every case it’s unnecessary.

courtesy by :Jim Wallen

Making A Site Using Google

May 30th, 2008

Making A Site Using Google

Businesses that want to sell something in the market need 2 things. The first is the product to be sold which has to be made then distributed to places like the grocery, the mall or the supermarket. The second is marketing which is the vehicle to carry that message across to the consumer so that people are aware of its existence then it is purchased.

The age of the internet has given people the opportunity to make money via the web. There are a lot of websites that offer a person the chance to be seen easily and quickly and one of the best right now is using site maps created by Google.

The benefits of using Google are the following;

·    It helps people find ones web page better than other search engines because of better crawl coverage.

·    People will be able to search on certain keywords that the person put in place which will directly lead searchers to ones website.

·    It allows the person to provide specific information to Google about the web page such as the last time it was modified or how often it is changed.

·    Using Google straight will allow ones web page to be seen quickly which is a lot better than other computer companies who promise to do the same thing but can’t deliver in the end.

Now that the benefits have been mentioned, it is now time to go through the step by step process to make a Google site map.

1.    The first thing that needs to be done is to do the proper research. The service or product has to fill a need that the customers want right now. It should provide a solution of some kind that will make that will improve the quality of life either at home or at work.

2.    Next, one should focus on the product or service that is being offered to the customer must be sold at a decent price. Sometimes, the product one makes is already available in the market. To be competitive, one must figure out a way to convince people as to why this product is better than the other leading brands available. What features does it have that the competitor doesn’t? What makes it unique which is not only about the product on hand but the service that this can give as well?

Just like a normal business where business is done on the phone or in a store, one must acquire the right equipment and machines for the job. These could be merchandise that is either physical or electronic and an online ordering system.

To be successful, one should be sure that the goods that a customer will order can be delivered on time. If there are any problems, a customer support staff or system should be ready to cater to that.

3.    If the business is done with a group of people or a single proprietorship, it is best to brainstorm for the best domain name for the business. It should be catchy and will easily be remembered by people. Given that there are probably other people who have been in the business longer and that it is possible that the domain name has already been taken, it is best to think of several names in case it can no longer be used.

4.    When a domain name has been selected, one should enter the URL of the website to be created. Google site maker will then crawl the site and create a list of all the links it can find.

5.    Next, one should fix the control settings. Doing this will determine how frequent the contents of the site changes which will let Google know how often it should be crawled.

6.    If there are certain URL’s that a person does not wish to be included in ones site, Google can be instructed to bypass it so that it will not be crawled and posted on ones site map. One can select what types of files to be bypassed whether these are .zip or .exe files.

7.    Also, one has the option of adding the sites FTP information since Google can automatically upload the site map for the person.

Google Adwords Way To Drive Laser Targeted Traffic

May 22nd, 2008

The biggest well known secret in generating wealth in the internet based business or e-commerce is Traffic. Everybody knows it; every site wants it and every site needs it. The point of websites is to be visited and viewed. Many elaborate designs, money and countless hours of developing a site to make them beautiful and attractive are utilized. Without traffic, it is for naught.

With traffic comes a potential customer which basically means sales which in turn means profit. While many sites have collapsed in the past with the downturn of many internet based business, many smaller sites have generated good money by concentrating on a certain niche and some subniches.

This is a reason why e-commerce site laser target certain groups of people and drive them to their site to showcase their sites and products. Precision marketing is essential so that you could count on all the traffic on your site as potential customers.

Using Money to Make Money

It’s a common business notion that if you want to make money, you have to spend money. One good way of spending money for business gain is through advertising. Advertising brings in the people because through advertising, they know that there is such a company or product in existence. With the right type of advertising, you can see the spurt of traffic growth to your site. With a high volume of traffic, even if only a small portion or percentage turns out to be buying customers it is still a good average of profit generating income.

Right now, there is no other advertising scheme that would be worth every cent than using Google’s Adwords. The surge in popularity of Google’s Adwords is very evident as you can see so many sites sporting this ad scheme.

In using Google’s Adwords, you pay a certain fee depending on the number of keywords your ad is keyword sensitive to. Each time a person does a search in Google, the keyword or keywords use generate ads in the side of Google which are generated by the keywords they have assigned for their ads.

This method laser targets the traffic a site wants for their site. This also ensures that you are readily visible in the first page of a search result. Paying Google for this ad scheme ensures that your target group of people sees your ads. You drive your laser targeted traffic to your site which provides for their needs and wants. You can also be sure that you can meet their demands and needs.

Aside from Google, you can also be featured in their other search networks, these includes sites like, AskJeeves, AOL Search and Netscape. These sites also show Adwords ads that react to searches done by visitors. There are also content networks, non-search engine sites that feature Google Adwords, which will also carry your ads. But this is subjected to the niche the site features. Your chosen keywords will determine which content network shall feature your ad. The frequency of your ad shall also be determined by your allowed budget.

Laser Targeting your Traffic

To get a good number or estimate of the traffic to buying customer ratio it is good to laser target your traffic. Knowing that your traffic are all potential customers and are interested in your products and company provides you with a more accurate statistics. This will show you how effective your utilizing of Google Adwords is.

Drive laser targeted traffic to your site by using keywords or keyword phrases for your Goggle Adwords that pertains to your company and to your products. There are many online internet tools that can help you in choosing keywords and keyword phrases that are currently in demand that could help drive laser targeted traffic to your site.

With your Google Adwords ad, you are ensured that every click to your ad is a potential customer that is precisely looking pr interested in what you have to offer. Make sure that your Google Adwords ad has the right keywords so that you can drive you’re laser targeted traffic to your site.

Using Google Adwords to help boost the drive to increase laser targeted traffic will prove to be very beneficial as many other companies can attest to. The benefits are high with the cost relatively justifiable.

Teen Bloggers

May 16th, 2008

Every day, blogs are created by people of all ages and
from all walks of life, but when it comes to blogging,
teen writers are truly on the cutting edge of the
movement. Because today’s teenagers are the first
generation of people to have grown up using the
internet at every stage of their development, many
adolescents have a seemingly innate sense of how to use
web technology to express their innermost thoughts and
ideas. Older writers often experience a kind of learning
curve when they begin to blog, but many young people
find that using a word processor and blogging software
feels more natural and direct a mode of communication
than writing in a diary ever could.

One of the reasons why blogs have undergone a kind of
explosion in the teen community and are growing by
leaps and bounds is the fact that they provide a unique
mixture of visibility and anonymity. A teenager can
invite friends and peers to read his or her blog with a
simple email, thereby winning attention or possibly
even praise. Of course, with visibility usually comes the
possibility of embarrassment, but the fact that it is
possible to blog anonymously with an invented handle
or nickname negates a lot of the potential for
humiliation. Many a blogging teen lives in fear that a
parent or guardian will discover his or her blog, but by
publishing under an alias a teenager can spill his or her
secrets without fear of being traced.

Outside the world of blogging, teen writers often have
very limited opportunities to be published. Magazines
and journals are often reticent to publish young writers
who may not have as much credibility as older writers
with a lot of experience and extensive credits to their
names. This can discourage adolescents from writing or
from seeking chances to publish their work. By
blogging, young people can begin to gain a following of
readers without first having to win the attention and
support of an editor or publisher who may not be very
interested in teenaged authors.

Between the fact that blogs provide young people with a
chance to exercise their impressive technical aptitude,
to gain visibility without compromising privacy, and to
build a readership for their writing without having to
jump through the traditional hoops of the publishing
industry, it is little wonder that are so many teenagers
with blogs. For some teenagers, blogging is even a very
social endeavor that allows them to meet people with
similar interests from all over the world. Many a
blogging teen has discovered that having a weblog on
the internet is a great way to explore self-expression
and, often, to win positive feedback from new friends.

Monitoring Your Search Engine Positions

May 15th, 2008

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the
Internet looking for goods or services, the position your
website appears in search results is an important factor.
If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances
of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally.
Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is
essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking
you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your
search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the
success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search
engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let
your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market
fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks
so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is
the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search
engine campaign and done all the right things to increase
your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward
climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment
that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens,
your search engine position campaign moves into stage two,
the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term
fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the
subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio.
Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole
process. It’s the long-term changes that you must watch for
and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions
is imperative. The way in which search engines rank
websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware
of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be
deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the
bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To
prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a
system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise
a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your
top pages, and make sure to watch “the market” closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website
rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any
way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search
engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them
so that a formula doesn’t become overused or outdated.
Depending on which formula is being applied, your search
engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank
significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions
frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes
formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor
you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor’s
position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your
position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position
higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the
continual changes that are occurring in your competitor’s
position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy
to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these
fluctuations will also give you vital information about how
to improve your website to increase your position in search
results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search
engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be
effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines
that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The
challenge you face is that these top ten may change from
month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search
engine positions, but you must also keep track of the
ranking popularity of the search engines you are
monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most
frequently every month and be sure to live in the present!
People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and
it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The
search engines they loved when you first launched your
campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must
adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the
Internet users.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of
your positions in all search engines. This is not the same
as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign!
It could mean a number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may
indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky
programs that seek out your site and rank their positions -
have found some type of problem with your website. If you
have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider
may become utterly confused and consequently drop your
positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your
website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may
actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or
a search engine may drastically change its formula, and
suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that
search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino
effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search
engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search
engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these
are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The
biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes
change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in
the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo
decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you
must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep
abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet
as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the
foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and
they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts.
If you have found that a number of your positions have
plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has
become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders.
Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase
has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you
must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If
costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this
investment as diligently as you would your financial
portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an
objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a
regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards
by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term
marketing campaign.

Website Traffic analyzation

May 13th, 2008

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable
tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can
make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to
interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web
traffic information that you then have to interpret and
make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from
your host company can be overwhelming if you don’t
understand how to apply it to your particular business and
website. Let’s start by examining the most basic data - the
average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and
monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your
website’s activity. It would appear on the surface that the
more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume
your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate
perception. You must also look at the behavior of your
visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge
the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly
known as “hits” and what is really effective, quality
traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of
information requests received by the server. If you think
about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number
of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown
the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage
has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits,
when in reality we are talking about a single visitor
checking out a single page on your site. As you can see,
hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more
accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the
traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis
will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller
the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors
can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out
how well or how poorly your site is working for your
visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long
on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time
spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an
underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out
what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type
of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are
confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit
rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are
spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and
after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as
a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine
effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you
have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are
exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could,
for example, consider improving the link to this page by
making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could
improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors
can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are
spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less
important, you might consider moving some of your sales
copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital
information about the effectiveness of individual pages,
and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential
information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final
order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your
visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your
site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking
for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit
pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a
particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In
the case that a significant percentage of visitors are
exiting your website on a page not designed for that
purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to
discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential
weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or
graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping
visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the
wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it’s time
to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular
keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your
site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they
find what they are looking for on your site, and even
better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the
more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being
directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a
particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands
adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors
to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close
analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find
your site will give you a vital understanding of your
visitor’s needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website
by typing in your company name, break open the champagne!
It means you have achieved a significant level of brand
recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

SEO basics

May 13th, 2008

Nowadays, even the smallest company uses the Internet as a main tool in building a customer base, keeping in contact with their clients and this is also their most basic means of advertising.

Designing a company web site is cheap and effective, not to mention essential because the world wide web is the only medium that offers instantaneous information access to millions of users around the globe.

Any web developer worth his salt should know about search engine optimization or SEO.

This is the key towards building an effective web site that would get a lot of hits and visitors. A web site that nobody visits is useless so the challenge lies in leading Internet users to visit your web site.

Thus, your web site need to be “found” when users type in keywords in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, AOL and others.

Once a keyword relating to the products or services that you offer is keyed into a search engine, a direct link to your web site should emerge on top of the list.

You should employ search engine optimization techniques to lead traffic your way, and get more hits that would later on lead to more profit for your company, which is your goal in the first place.

Here are some tips on how you can make it to the top of the list of search engines, and use your SEO techniques to benefit your web site and your company:

1. If you have an existing web site and domain, just optimize the one that you currently have instead of purchasing a new domain.

It will take some time before your web site will show up in a particular search engine, like Google, so it better to use the one that you currently have instead of switching to a new one.

2. Know who your target audience is and aim for them.

If you are in the manufacturing industry and a user types in your product in a search engine, then you would immediately have your target right in front of you.

As soon as the user hits the Enter button or clicks on ‘Search’, then the person will be lead to your web site.

Make sure that your target market will get ‘hooked’ on your web site. Once the search engines show the link to your web site, their job is done.

What you should do next is to make sure that your visitor will not leave your web site without them trying out your products or services, or at least leaving some pertinent information so that you can contact them in the future for marketing and advertising purposes.

When hitting a particular target market, learn about their interests, location and age to have an idea of what you can offer them in return.

Also, you can somehow link their interests to your products and services.

3. Search for the right keyword.

You should be  creative, persistent and flexible when looking for the keyword or keyword phrases to use in optimizing your web site.

Google and Yahoo offer some tools and tips on how you can come up with keywords  that will yield results.

Do not settle for just one keyword. You can also vary the words and phrases that you use for each page on your web site so that you can have more hits.

4. Consider your target market when designing your web site.

The design itself would include the general theme of the web site. You should also pay attention to smaller details such as color and  font style and size.

Make sure that the web site is user-friendly and do not forget to insert helpful articles, tips, hints and related links that can be shared to other users.

It is a good thing to have an option to send a link or an article to a friend, which will add more users and increase your client base.

There should also be various ways to browse through your web site, to fit each user.

A person might find it to difficult use the scroll down option so you should also provide hyperlinks which are accessible to them.

5. Concentrate on the web site content.

Regularly update the content of your web site so that old and new users can find something new when browsing through your site.

Make the content brief and precise. Writing a content which has more than 600 words will make the users lose interest, since most of them do not actually read but just skim through the text.

Strive to be the best and most comprehensive web site and you will make your mark when it comes to information about the products and services that you offer.

It helps a lot to pay attention to detail, too.

Finally, keeping your web site’s content updated is a must.

Spread the word about your web site and use the basic search engine optimization techniques and you will surely gain positive results once users visit your web site.