Deep Links for Search Engine Optimization
It’s still shocking that many newbies don’t understand links. You don’t need to link to a lot of Web sites. You need a lot of good Web sites to link to you. And, it’s best if you can manage to get some of those links to include — in some fashion — the keywords that describe the page they’re linking to.
For example, if I’m linking to Search Engine Watch, I would want to link using the words “Search Engine Optimization News” within the anchor text of the link. If I wanted to “deep link” (that is to say, link deeper within the Search Engine Watch Web site), I would link to the Promotion & Link Building page using the words “Link Building Resources.”
via Top Signs Your Site Isn’t Ready for Prime Time, Part 2 – Search Engine Watch (SEW).
This strategy is so critical. I would also add that not only do you want to use your keywords in this deep linking strategy, but you should also link from sites that have a high PageRank.
For example, you could generate dozens of inbound links from sites with a Google PageRank of zero and your efforts would yield very little in-terms of SEO. Whereas one link from a .gov or .edu site with high PageRank could significantly improve your rank.
To lean more about PageRank, check out Wikipedia on PageRank
To check the PageRank of any site, check out prchecker.
Read MoreOptimizing YouTube Videos for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
YouTube.com is the second most searched site on the Internet, next to Google, so you might conclude that it is the second largest search engine. It so happens that Google owns YouTube so the implications are something to be well understood and taken seriously as YouTube relates to your Internet Marketing strategy.
As the largest online video sharing site, YouTube is home to everything from Obama’s weekly radio address to corporate sponsored informercials and people showcasing their musical talent. The list goes on and anything you can imagine can be found on YouTube. It’s free to sign up, free to upload videos, and free to view videos. Honestly, there’s nothing stopping you from taking advantage of this great medium to communicate and engage with your market.
The fact is most people do not understand how to properly optimize their videos for search engines and thus most video get very little attention.
Keywords
As with any search engine optimization strategy, keywords are critical. Think of them as the combination of words or phrases that people search for on the Internet. Since YouTube videos are frequently indexed by major search engines, it’s important to understand some simple steps to make your videos more search engine friendly.
It so happens that you can also call out these keywords in a special Keywords section with every new video you upload. Here’s your chance to thoroughly differentiate your video from the pack.
Titles
The title of your video needs to include two things: 1) your keywords and 2) something to hook viewers as they scan through a list of titles. If you fail to include the right keywords, search engines will ignore your video and if you fail to use a catchy title viewers will ignore your video.
For example, instead of using a title such as “Great House on 1.3 Acres!”, you might get better results with “4581 Morgan Creek – House for Sale in Roseville, CA”. The first example would be fine if the video was for a specific client, but the second video will ultimately draw more viewers since it names the city and uses the keyword phrases “house for sale” and “Roseville, CA”.
Descriptions
The second most overlooked section of posting a video on YouTube is the description field. When search engines index your video, the description field is a key element.
First and foremost, if you have a URL that you want visitors to visit, put that as the first item in your description. By default, only the first few lines of the description are displayed above the fold, so you want your URL to be right there at the top in the most obvious position so viewers click on it. Be sure to format the link correctly so it’s an active link using “html://www.mysite.com”.
The description field is also a great place to pack in your keywords and keyword phrases. Take care not to overdo it – strive for something that makes sense and gets the point across, but still incorporates the keywords where possible. An extra bonus is that YouTube cross-references related videos and people are more likely to find your video if you follow these general guidelines.
What’s you experience with optimizing YouTube videos? Any tricks you’ve learned?
Read MoreWhat are the best resources for a beginner of SEO ?
Q: What are the best resources for a beginner of SEO ?
I recommend SEObook.com, SEOmoz.com and SearchEngineWatch.com. You can also take a professional course, such those offered at SempoInstitute.com.
If you really want hands-on training, identify a niche, conduct keyword research, and build a traffic generation strategy. Maybe set up a free WordPress or Blogger account to test various tactics you learn along the way.
At that point, you might need to consider leveraging communities or building your own and implementing a conversion strategy. Depends on your objectives – which you should clearly understand before launching an SEO campaign.
Learning the basics is pretty straightforward. The toughest part may be identifying the right long-tail keywords – if you don’t know how to do this you could potentially waste a ton of money and time with both SEO and SEM especially.
Becoming truly proficient at SEO takes time, so have some patience and learn one new tactic everyday.
Hope this helps,
Steinar
Think SEO Long-Term, PPC Short-Term
There are many reasons why SEO is a better investment than PPC, but the most compelling one is this: SEO drives more than 75 percent of all search traffic and PPC drives less than 25 percent. In short, your opportunity is more than three times greater.
via Selling SEO Projects Against PPC Campaigns – Search Engine Watch (SEW).
Of course, this really depends heaviy on your business model and sales funnel. For some businesses that sell directly online, PPC is a fantastic option, since you have the ability to track ROI to the penny and can quickly coorelate keyword performance with sales to tweak your PPC strategy.
For more traditional selling models, PPC is great to get initial traffic coming in, but it’s SEO that will drive long-term organic rankings and search traffic.
Furthermore, SEO tactics, such as developing great content with RSS feeds, gives you the ability to increase inbound links, where PPC is a one-shot deal with no long term impact. Once you stop paying the traffic stops.
Take an hour today to revisit your traffic generation plan. Consider PPC and SEO among other strategies, specifically thinking about the short and long-term goals you hope to achieve with each.
Read MoreHow FriendFeed Could Become the Ultimate Social Media Tracking Service
Friendfeed is one of my favorite apps for a couple reasons. One is the social networking tools, such as “Like”, “Comment” and groups.
Second if the real-time view. This is really great as news breaks instead of refreshing your screen every minute.
Third is the ability to automatically tweet certain RSS feeds in your account list.
Mashable also did a recent article on Friendfeed:
Read MoreFriendFeed, the multi-network activity aggregator co-founded by GMail creator Paul Buchheit, announced today that it has entered the crowded field of real time search. FriendFeed was already the best way to learn what early adopter social media users were saying about any topic across blogs, Twitter, delicious and other diverse social media sites. If FriendFeed wants to step it up to the next level and challenge business-class conversation trackers, we believe there are four steps the company needs to take.
via How FriendFeed Could Become the Ultimate Social Media Tracking Service.
