The "Triple Crown" of SEO – Google, Yahoo & Bing

I was asked recently by a company I am doing SEO work for if it is possible to achieve Google Yahoo and Bing first page search results at the same time. my first thought was that it would be difficult to achieve such a task. The problem is, Google, Yahoo and Bing all use different search engine algorithms. Yahoo and several other providers will be incorporating Bing’s search engine technology. Although, Yahoo will still have unique characteristics built within its search algorithm.

Achieving front page search engine results for Google, Yahoo, and Bing could be considered as the Triple Crown of SEO.  Similar to the Triple Crown a thorough bred racing which consists of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness stakes, and Belmont stakes could be compared to Google, Yahoo and Bing. each search is the race in its own and is very difficult to win. A significant amount of training should go into your SEO campaign and achievable goals should be set within.

These goals can be tracked through programs such as Google’s Webmaster tools which is free and should be utilized by every webmaster. There are other paid services that exist that can be even more helpful. Google’s Webmaster tools tends to be the most popular but only provides information from a googlebot standpoint.

Each search engine will require a different criteria to achieve first page search engine results. for instance, Yahoo pays attention to keyword meta-tag descriptions whereas Google does not. The content within your webpage will become the overall factor in where your are placed within the search engine. However, title tags and descriptions play an important role. Other factors include number of links into your site, speed of site, how long your website has been owned and if you have a delicate balance between links content and optimized images.

Trouble with Keywords? | SEO Tip #68

Are you having trouble with keywords? If so it might be caused by the competition of that particular keyword. Competition varies upon different keywords. For instance, will take the print company http://www.iPrintToday.com. They sell business cards, postcards, greeting cards, brochures, flyers, and much more. The keyword business cards is searched for over 30 million times locally and approximately 45,000,000 times globally per month. That means, whomever is on the first page for that particular keyword is generating huge amounts of traffic. Business cards, besides printing is the biggest key word for the printing industry. If you were on the first page for business cards you will receive large volumes of clicks.

I print today.com has a very easy to navigate website and it is optimized for the word business cards. Although, it is very difficult for them to achieve first page rankings because they are fairly new and the competition is one of the stiffest among any industry for particular keyword. Let’s take a another keyword example. Business card printing has approximately 50,000 searches locally per month and approximately 100,000 globally per month. It is feasible to get to the top of Google from that particular keyword, because the competition isn’t as stiff as the general term business cards. The downfall to this is 150,000 searches compared to 75 million searches, as you can see there really isn’t any comparison. You must look at it like this though, if you can’t get to the top of Google for a particular keyword because of the competition then start by dominating less competitive keywords.

For most web owners, choosing less competitive keywords isn’t going to cut it. These web owners will certainly be fighting an uphill battle it will take longer time to achieve success trying to accomplish your goals this way. Again, 75 million searches compared to 150,000 searches isn’t even a comparison but, if you can’t get on the top or the 75 million then you should consider a long tail keyword and establish your website this way.
There are several keyword generation and analyzing tools that are free of charge, one of the best ones is Google’s ad words tool. This tool will show you the competition and return the search results both locally and globally per month. We suggest you utilizing this tool as it will help your keyword suggestion and generation because it will not only analyze any websites you type in but also to use synonyms for keywords.

Climb to the top of Google and stay there | SEO Tip #54

Getting to the top of Google doesn’t have to be difficult. The vast majority of searches result on users clicking on pages 1 or two of their results. 85% of the clicks occur on page 1 and 14%  of the clicks are on page 2, the remaining 1% or from pages 3 and so on.

Having your website on the front page of Google is like having a store in the large shopping mall in the world.

With so many aspects of search engine marketing available is entirely impossible to name them all here in one blog. You can however breakdown the steps in multiple categories making it easier to develop a successful SEO campaign.

The ability of search engine optimization to achieve first page ranking in Google and Yahoo being in other search engines to play the most important role in your e-commerce website. For example, 65% of clicks or on organic search results, sponsored results make up the other 35%. So your chances of receiving a click organically are almost 3 to 1.

From title tags and meta-descriptions to relevant content and optimized images each factor plays an important role in your SEO campaign. While some of play more of an important role than others each factor should not be ignored. In fact, it is best to get a checklist and go through each portion of your website and optimize it for size, content, title, and meta-description.

Unfortunately, there are more factors that are included that don’t necessarily reveal themselves. For instance, bold text is important but too much bold text can get you punished. Head tags which are H1 H2 all way up to    H6 are meaningful but too many will result in punishment.

Hiring a SEO company that has experience can be one of the most critical elements for your website. Be weary of companies that stay they can get you to the top of Google guaranteed. There isn’t any guarantee that you will  get to the top of any search engine in any amount of time. Remember, you can submit your site to Google directly for no fee at all through their submit URL or via site map in Webmaster tools.

Google will get first shot at AOL

Google Inc. will get “first dibs” at signing a search engine deal with AOL Inc. when the two companies’ current agreement expires at the end of this year, AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong said Thursday.

Asked how Microsoft Corp.’s aggressive push into the search market could impact the negotiations between AOL and any search engine provider, Armstrong said his company could “maybe get the same economics” from a new deal.

But he noted that any new search deal would have to be financially good for AOL …

Source: Wall Street Journal

Sitemaps and their importance

Sitemaps and their importance:

Optimizing the basic structure of your web site greatly increases the likelihood that search engines will successfully locate and index your content. Search engine ranking algorithms analyze numerous on-site factors when determining where a web site ranks for a particular search term.

Some of these factors include your web site content, your domain name, how compatible your web site is with different browsers, your web site structure, your navigational links, and your inbound links. Credibility and speed of your web site will also play a role in your final rankings.

An effectively designed sitemap increases the likelihood that your site is indexed by search engines. A well-built sitemap displays the inner framework and organization of your web site’s content to the search engines. A sitemap should reflect the entire navigational framework of your web site so that the search-engine spiders can find and index all your content.

Plan a simple design that displays every web page. Break down each page in categories which will allow people to navigate and find pages.

There are automated site-map generators that can build html and xml sitemaps which are compatible with Google, Yahoo, and Bing sitemap submission guidelines.

How can Google webmaster tools answer your SEO questions?

If you own a web site and have used Google webmaster tools in the past you know how invaluable it can be. Achieving a successful ranking in Google by analyzing and diagnosing problems go hand in hand. Many questions new web owners have are answered directly in webmaster tools.

New web owners that both use and don’t use webmaster tools often asking repetitive and redundant questions in forums. Secondly, a webmaster or owner can waste valuable time when the answers which are catered directly to that particular website are within webmaster tools.

We’ll cover the different tools and try to answer FAQs regarding them. Google adds different elements at any moment and should be taken advantage of. This will be part 1 of a 4 part series.

When you install the tracking code either by meta tag or upload a file via ftp to your hosted web site you’ll be able to verify your web site. We’ll get past that because there are tons of articles especially from Google that pertain to how to install that code. Who’s better than Google themselves in explaining that.

When you login to your “Dashboard” you’ll be taken to window that looks similar to this. Depending on if your site has been indexed by Google or not will determine what status you’ll see. You may see…

Googlebot has successfully accessed your home page.

Pages from your site are included in Google’s index.

This is good news because Google has done exactly what it states above and you should be able to see yourself in Google search results. Sometimes when your site is young, you will not see any results. Don’t worry, soon enough you will, but if you want to receive more information check out this SEO page on how to do so.

Below the “Dashboard” you will see “Top Search Queries”. This will show you what search queries and position you are on in Google’s search engine results. There is a date that is below that notifies you when was the last time it was updated. There is also a button that says more>> which will lead you to more results.

Below the “Tops Search Queries” is “Links to your site”. If you have any links it will show you where the links are coming from if you click on the number to the right. More times than none you will see links from directories, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Typically the more the better. There are good reasons that webmaster tools has these on the interface.

On the upper right part of the Dashboard, the is “Crawl Errors”. There is good, but technical information that needs to be addressed. For instance webmaster will let you know if there are errors in your HTTP, Sitemap, No Followed, Not Found, Restricted by robots.txt, Timed out, and Unreachable. Again, there is a plethora of already well written content that will explain how to fix your particular problems.

Under “Crawl Errors” there is “Keywords”. This category will show the keywords and a significance meter in relevance to your site. You should see keywords that are the same as your description, title, website, and content. The more information that is similar and relevant to your subject, the better off your site will be.

Below the “Keywords” is “Sitemap”.  If you haven’t submitted a sitemap to Google or other providers than you should. This will let Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other providers that there is new content. You will not need to “Submit your site” and waste your time. If you are indexed it will tell you the file name of the sitemap, the status, which hopefully has a green check mark and how many pages are indexed. That number means that Google has found and indexed that many pages.

How to Blog? | SEO | Search Engine Optimization

Ever wonder how blogs are making money? Have you ever wanted to try to blog and monetize it, write for a living and earn money?

Blogs are an excellent way to express yourself. It’s also one of the best ways to get your business, products, or ideas noticed. Think of it essentially as a press-release. The only difference is that PR companies typically release their content to thousand of syndication feeds and hundreds of thousands of readers.

Blogging for a living isn’t something you just quit your job and start full time. Although, it does take a full time effort, especially at first when creating the blog. One thing to keep in mind is that the internet is saturated with content, a lot of which is gibberish and nonsense. You have a 20 year old telling you how to retire when they are making only $40k a year. As you can see anyone can blog and they do.

How to blog isn’t the question you should be asking yourself. What do I blog about may be the first question you should ask, but finding out if there is enough interest is just as crucial. Google offers a great tool to see the competition for any keyword along with how many searches were performed on that keyword along with other similar to that one. You can then base your writing upon particular keywords that generate interest and traffic.

Once you have your subject down and you find there is interest and there isn’t 100,000,000 searches per month for making it feasible to achieve top page results.  If you’ve read any of my other blogs you would know that 85% of organic traffic clicks on the first page results. You only have 15% chance of receiving a click if you aren’t on page one on Google.

You can now choose what blogging service from a slew of different providers. Relax, there are several that offer free services including WordPress, but Blogger allows you to monetize immediately where as WordPress needs to be self hosted. If you are ready to go and want to start blogging I would suggest Bloggeer.

Pick one of the templates they offer, which you can change at any given time. Adjust the colors, fonts, headers, and gadgets to the way to want them and start blogging. You may want to check our articles on Google Webmaster Tools and how to get your sitemap and feeds into Google properly. It’s a great article that explains in detail how to do this. Notifying Google and other search engines that you have a Blog, but also a sitemap explaining where every page is is like an index station or a librarian at a library. If pages and files were all over the place it would be a nightmare.

There are plenty of people making money from Blogs through advertisements. Some of the highest paid are making approximately 200k per month, that’s correct, 200k per month. Some decent blogs that I’ve seen are making about 3k to 10k per month. It all depends on how long you can sustain making no money at all. These blogs have incredible niches, have been blogging for over 3 years and have anywhere from 1000 to 100,000 blogs.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments. You can follow me Christopher Allen via Twitter.

How much is Google's #1 spot in search results worth to you?

How much is Google’s #1 spot in search results worth to you?

If you own a web site and you sell online you are definitely wondering on how much revenue will be produced if you have your web site on Google’s front page for your main keyword. If your industry isn’t competitive, then you are lucky and should exploit the lack of competition. If you have a printing company such as http://www.iprinttoday.com who sells business cards, postcards, greeting, etc., but is struggling to achieve front page results on Google for the search term business cards.

This industry is amazingly competitive and produces enormous search results along with plenty of other businesses including major players within the printing field. If you break down the numbers what a top rank in Google is worth, you might think differently. 65% of search results are organic clicks (not sponsored ads). 85% of total clicks come from the first page of Google searches, 14% on page two, and only 1% spread among the rest of the pages.

Let’s take 100,000 local searches per month for keyword “business card printing”. Let’s say you are on page one for Google, here is what it could be worth to your business.

• 65% click on organic searches = 65,000 possible clicks per month out of 100,000 total searches.

• 85% of the 65,000 which is the avg that clicks is 55,250 possible clicks per month.

Depending where you are on Google’s front page will determine how much traffic you will receive. Obviously, the number one spot is the best. Number two is pretty much just that all the way to number four, but then eight, nine, and ten have high click through ratios because that’s where the page stops when scrolling.

Fact is that even on a keyword, which is competitive and receives a good amount of traffic, achieving front page results isn’t out of the question. In fact, it might be easier than you think. Over 55k possible clients for one keyword per month and essentially ten or so companies are jockeying for position. If you divided the traffic equally you would come out to 5,500 clicks per month. It doesn’t work that way, but it gives you an idea. Let’s take the same keyword “business card printing”. Let’s say you are on page two for Google, here is what it could be worth to your business.

• 65% click on organic searches takes it down to 65,000 possible clicks per month out of 100,000 total searches.

• 14% of the 65,000 that clicked 9,100 possible clicks per month.

9,100 possible clicks divided among ten possible companies is 910 compared to almost six times that. All for one page. We won’t even do the example for page three and so on.

These are rough estimates plus throw in the fact that web traffic isn’t evenly divided between the top 10, another factor to weight is that different URLs tend to fluctuate on search results.

3 easy ways to promote your blog or web site

It might look as a daunting task when you first start a blog. How do you promote it? Creating it, then writing, then you have to promote it. Well, most people aren’t thinking about promoting and in fact if you have well written content it will promote itself. The title being the most important along with keywords relevant to what you are writing about.

There are in fact ways to help bypass the waiting period for a newer blog to get indexed. Here are five ways to get your blog to top of Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines.

1. Yahoo, Bing, & Google Webmaster Tools – If you have a WordPress or Blogger blog or some other type you can generate a sitemap and submit that through Google Webmaster Tools. Yahoo site authenticator and Bing Tools all do the same thing. They allow you to submit your sitemap which tells these search engines that certain pages exist. It is in fact the quickest way to get indexed and the proper way.

2.  Social networking – This is actually a lot of work, but can pay off. If you like to talk and write, then this is definitely for you. You need to make accounts with Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, Squidoo, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Each one of these carries a large network of users similar to you. Each has a niche that you need to be aware of and try to work within the confines of that. 
3. Forums & Message Boards – Signing up for message boards are extremely important. They are usually live and need content and answers. If you provide answers and your profile is filled out, chances are people will view your profile and go to your blog or site more times than none. The more helpful and the more you participate, the more traffic you’ll get. Another benefit is if you can pick up a name similar to your website which should be similar to your main product or topic and that can promote you tremendously.

   http://www.supersearchoptimization.com

How can I increase my web site traffic?

As web site owners, the question that may come up the most is how can I increase my web site traffic? This is an important question simply because we aren’t artists who create web sites to get our emotions out on a canvas. Instead, we need traffic typically to generate revenue. Whether it be a blog with Google AdSense or an eCommerce web site, the most crucial factor is to have customers.

There are several factors when designing a web site to optimize it for search engines. Search engines break down your web site by looking at different key factors. For instance Yahoo does tend to look at title, keywords, content and links into your web site. Where as Google pays more attention to title, meta description, quality links into that page and the first paragraph in with that particular keyword.

Optimizing your web site isn’t easy considering there are four major players when it comes to search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, & Ask.com). Different search engine results exist at the same time for the same keywords and web sites. You may rank well for this particular keyword on Google, but not on Yahoo. The choice is yours when it come to making a decision on what search engine to optimize for over another.

There are web masters, designers, and owners who are looking for “the next SEO loop-hole”. Why? Instead why not work with the search engines. If they want relevant, honest, yet informative content, then it should be done that way. Black hat SEO isn’t worth it, you put almost as much time as White Hat SEO, the results are there quicker, but when you get caught your done for good. Spend the time creating unique content and it will pay off.

A great way to increase web traffic is by creating a blog. Allow comments, but moderate them since there are spammers who try to manipulate search engines with shady tactics instead of having something relevant to say. Taking advantage of a free blogging service like WordPress or Blogger is a great way to get started. You should get it hosted to have complete control including advertising, content, and placement.

Once you have set up your blog, start writing good content, the more the better. Once you have written about 25 blogs you’ll start to receive traffic. You’ll be amazed on how many people are interested in your topic. It takes approximately 1 to 2 weeks before Google will crawl your site, but if you are savvy and know webmaster tools, you can submit your sitemap and feeds and it will let Google know you exist. This is the appropriate way to let them know instead of submitting your sites URL.

http://www.supersearchoptimization.com