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Including Keywords When Doing Information Marketing

Privateer Web Solutions — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:41:55 +0000

Keyword placement is an important part of information marketing whether you are using text, audio, or video as your medium.

Keywords
Keywords are typically what lets different sites and search engines know what to display to users who are searching for or browsing content. For information marketing purposes, they have a couple of purposes: Getting search engines and search algorithms to display your content Catching the eye of your target audience, especially in results where the words searched on are highlighted While they are a critical component of information marketing, they mean nothing if your title, summary, resource box, or content is weak.

Keywords

Keywords are typically what lets different sites and search engines know what to display to users who are searching for or browsing content.

For information marketing purposes, they have a couple of purposes:

Getting search engines and search algorithms to display your content
Catching the eye of your target audience, especially in results where the words searched on are highlighted

While they are a critical component of information marketing, they mean nothing if your title, summary, resource box, or content is weak.

Using Keywords in Content
When creating your content, the following guidelines on keyword placement will generally help to get your content displayed: Title: Use your primary keyword as close to the front of your title as you can. If you can fit them in, use secondary keywords later in your title. If you cannot create a good title with your keywords, do without them or keep working on your title. Summary: Use your primary keyword close to the front of your summary. Use a couple of your secondary keywords throughout your summary. Avoid packing your summary too full of keywords. If you cannot fit more than one keyword into your summary and still make it sound natural, do without further keywords or keep working on your summary. Resource Box: If you can use your primary keyword in your resource box while keeping it tidy and sounding good, do so. If not, don’t worry about it. The primary work of keywords should be done by your title, summary, and content. Content: Try to use your primary keyword as close to the start of your content as possible. Use it a couple more times in the body of your content, but not at the expense of sounding unnatural or spam-like. Use secondary keywords in your content where it makes sense to do so. The main thing is to make the individual parts of your article strong, while using your primary keyword near the beginning of the most important parts if possible. However, I am of the opinion that you should always go for strong content before keyword placement. If you cannot manage to create strong content with decent keyword placement, I’d typically recommend continuing to work on your article until you get both. You content will be online for a long time to come (unless you pull it), so it is worth taking a bit of extra time to get it right.

Using Keywords in Content

When creating your content, the following guidelines on keyword placement will generally help to get your content displayed:

Title:: Use your primary keyword as close to the front of your title as you can.; If you can fit them in, use secondary keywords later in your title.; If you cannot create a good title with your keywords, do without them or keep working on your title.
Summary:: Use your primary keyword close to the front of your summary.; Use a couple of your secondary keywords throughout your summary.; Avoid packing your summary too full of keywords.; If you cannot fit more than one keyword into your summary and still make it sound natural, do without further keywords or keep working on your summary.
Resource Box:: If you can use your primary keyword in your resource box while keeping it tidy and sounding good, do so.; If not, don’t worry about it. The primary work of keywords should be done by your title, summary, and content.
Content:: Try to use your primary keyword as close to the start of your content as possible.; Use it a couple more times in the body of your content, but not at the expense of sounding unnatural or spam-like.; Use secondary keywords in your content where it makes sense to do so.

The main thing is to make the individual parts of your article strong, while using your primary keyword near the beginning of the most important parts if possible.

However, I am of the opinion that you should always go for strong content before keyword placement.

If you cannot manage to create strong content with decent keyword placement, I’d typically recommend continuing to work on your article until you get both.

You content will be online for a long time to come (unless you pull it), so it is worth taking a bit of extra time to get it right.

Creating Solid Content for Information Marketing

Privateer Web Solutions — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:37:59 +0000

For information marketing purposes, your content is very important. If you fail to provide people with good content, your work on a strong title, summary, and resource box will typically be a waste of time.

Content Creation
The body of your content should focus on providing exactly what the title and summary promise quickly and efficiently. The purpose of your content is to give the one viewing it the information that they were looking for, so that they will view it and hopefully take the action you are looking for. If you don’t deliver, then people will quickly hit their back button and see if they can find content that does deliver.

Content Creation

The body of your content should focus on providing exactly what the title and summary promise quickly and efficiently.

The purpose of your content is to give the one viewing it the information that they were looking for, so that they will view it and hopefully take the action you are looking for.

If you don’t deliver, then people will quickly hit their back button and see if they can find content that does deliver.

Creating Strong Content
When you are creating content, there are a few simple things that you should generally try to keep in mind: Keep the feel of the body similar to the feel of the title If you used a secretive title, but provide content that doesn’t have a hint of secrecy to it, your viewer may decide to go elsewhere. They chose your content based upon the title…so chances are good that they want content that has the same general feel to it. Keep it short Unless you promise a novel, it is best to keep your content as short as possible, especially when creating text content. Start strong and stay strong Your first two sentences should be as strong as you can make them. For audio and video, the first half minute should be good enough to hold peoples interest. Most people will go look elsewhere if you haven’t caught their attenting within the first paragraph. Providing a week introduction will prompt people to go elsewhere. Use paragraphs liberally in textual content Long paragraphs turn most people off. By breaking up your paragraphs, you make your writing more inviting and/or less intimidating for most people. If you know that your target market doesn’t mind (or even enjoys) long paragraphs, then ignore this. Use whitespace liberally If the venue or medium allows, consider using images and boxes to break up your text and make particular pieces of information stand out better. Use subheadings If it makes sense to do so, be sure to create subheadings in any textual content. This helps skimmers find the section of your content that they want to read. Callouts: If it is allowed, you might want to include a callout in your content. A callout tells your viewer what they should do now. If you don’t suggest that they do something, most people won’t. When it makes sense, I prefer to place callouts that are similar to titles, telling people the benefits of taking the action I suggest rather than just telling them something like "Click here to buy!" For example: “Learn how the courts work and answer your own legal questions without a high priced lawyer!” "Ignore the sycophantic media. Learn the real reasons for our economic problems now!" Directed towards the proper audience, both callouts could be quite effective…even though neither one notes what, exactly, will happen if the reader clicks either link. For comparison sake, here are the callouts they might replace: "Buy Jurisdictionary Now!" "Get your copy of The Revolution, a Manifesto now!"

Creating Strong Content

When you are creating content, there are a few simple things that you should generally try to keep in mind:

Keep the feel of the body similar to the feel of the title: If you used a secretive title, but provide content that doesn’t have a hint of secrecy to it, your viewer may decide to go elsewhere.; They chose your content based upon the title…so chances are good that they want content that has the same general feel to it.
Keep it short: Unless you promise a novel, it is best to keep your content as short as possible, especially when creating text content.
Start strong and stay strong: Your first two sentences should be as strong as you can make them. For audio and video, the first half minute should be good enough to hold peoples interest.; Most people will go look elsewhere if you haven’t caught their attenting within the first paragraph.; Providing a week introduction will prompt people to go elsewhere.
Use paragraphs liberally in textual content: Long paragraphs turn most people off. By breaking up your paragraphs, you make your writing more inviting and/or less intimidating for most people.; If you know that your target market doesn’t mind (or even enjoys) long paragraphs, then ignore this.
Use whitespace liberally: If the venue or medium allows, consider using images and boxes to break up your text and make particular pieces of information stand out better.
Use subheadings: If it makes sense to do so, be sure to create subheadings in any textual content.; This helps skimmers find the section of your content that they want to read.

Callouts:

If it is allowed, you might want to include a callout in your content.

A callout tells your viewer what they should do now. If you don’t suggest that they do something, most people won’t.

When it makes sense, I prefer to place callouts that are similar to titles, telling people the benefits of taking the action I suggest rather than just telling them something like "Click here to buy!"

For example:

“Learn how the courts work and answer your own legal questions without a high priced lawyer!”
"Ignore the sycophantic media.
Learn the real reasons for our economic problems now!"

Directed towards the proper audience, both callouts could be quite effective…even though neither one notes what, exactly, will happen if the reader clicks either link.

For comparison sake, here are the callouts they might replace:

Using Resource Boxes in Your Information Marketing Efforts

Privateer Web Solutions — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:31:52 +0000

Resource boxes, author information boxes, and other boxes displayed with your content can be very useful in getting people to do what you want them to, whether that be buy an item, learn more about a particular thing, or just about anything else.

Resource Boxes
When creating content on other peoples sites, resource boxes are often the only way you have of getting people to visit your site or store. On your own site, they can serve to help break up the text on a page while providing key pieces of information or links to your products. From an information marketing standpoint, the primary purpose of resource boxes on other sites is to get people to do what you want them to. For that reason, a resource box is typically the third most important piece of your content.

Resource Boxes

When creating content on other peoples sites, resource boxes are often the only way you have of getting people to visit your site or store.

On your own site, they can serve to help break up the text on a page while providing key pieces of information or links to your products.

From an information marketing standpoint, the primary purpose of resource boxes on other sites is to get people to do what you want them to.

For that reason, a resource box is typically the third most important piece of your content.

Creating a Strong Resource Box
When creating your resource box, you should take care to comply with any policies concerning them which the site you want to place your content on has. From there, a good resource box should attempt to: Be clean and uncluttered Give people a way to get where you want them to go If a particular site does not allow offsite links in the resource box ( and you still want to write on it ), then you might consider a callout to check your profile, particularly if the site allows a link to be placed there.

Creating a Strong Resource Box

When creating your resource box, you should take care to comply with any policies concerning them which the site you want to place your content on has.

From there, a good resource box should attempt to:

Be clean and uncluttered
Give people a way to get where you want them to go

If a particular site does not allow offsite links in the resource box ( and you still want to write on it ), then you might consider a callout to check your profile, particularly if the site allows a link to be placed there.

Creating a Good Information Marketing Summary

Privateer Web Solutions — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:25:39 +0000

When you are using information marketing, creating a strong, informative summary is almost as important as creating a good title.

The Summary
Most web sites use summaries when displaying your content alongside other content. Your summary serves two primary purposes: Getting sites and search engines to display your content to people Getting people to choose your content rather than someone else’s In doing these things, your summary supports your title. Failing to have a strong summary will result in your content either not being displayed in the first place or not being viewed even if it is listed. For these reasons, you should be sure to take the time to come up with a strong summary.

The Summary

Most web sites use summaries when displaying your content alongside other content.

Your summary serves two primary purposes:

Getting sites and search engines to display your content to people
Getting people to choose your content rather than someone else’s

In doing these things, your summary supports your title. Failing to have a strong summary will result in your content either not being displayed in the first place or not being viewed even if it is listed.

For these reasons, you should be sure to take the time to come up with a strong summary.

Creating a Strong Summary
Ideally, your summary will be much like a short piece of sales copy writing. Getting pages and search engines to list your content For the purposes of getting your content displayed when people are searching for something to view, you should typically try to include the following: Your primary targeted keyword or phrase One or more secondary keywords or phrases Of course, it is generally better to have no keywords in your summary than to use them in a manner that is disjointed. As with your title, it is better to have your primary keyword close to the start of your summary and any secondary keywords later on. Getting people to choose your content For the purposes of getting people to choose your content, your summary should attempt to: Work with your title rather than duplicating it Tell potential readers what benefit your content will bring them (or what pain they will suffer if they fail to…if that is the way you write) Normally, you will want to avoid the following in your summaries: Talking about yourself Talking about your business Including snippets of your content Keep in mind that your summaries purpose is to pitch your article, not your business. People typically select content because they want to solve a problem, learn something, or entertain themselves. Your summary should (in most cases) work to tell them how they will do one or more of these. Consider the following two summaries: The Whowazit Magic Mind Meld Marketing Method This article is about getting more sales by increasing the traffic to your online store. It is written by Johnny Artifice, an experienced on-line seller that has used the method within to make a lot of money over the years. It includes information that can help you increase your on-line sales. The Whowazit Magic Mind Meld Marketing Method Say goodbye to discounting your inventory for good. Get more traffic and sales by learning to peek inside the minds of your target audience, find out exactly what they want, and then provide it to them. With these methods, you will quickly increase traffic from people who want to buy exactly what you are offering. If you were to see these next to each other, which would you be more likely to choose?

Creating a Strong Summary

Ideally, your summary will be much like a short piece of sales copy writing.

Getting pages and search engines to list your content

For the purposes of getting your content displayed when people are searching for something to view, you should typically try to include the following:

Your primary targeted keyword or phrase
One or more secondary keywords or phrases

Of course, it is generally better to have no keywords in your summary than to use them in a manner that is disjointed.

As with your title, it is better to have your primary keyword close to the start of your summary and any secondary keywords later on.

Getting people to choose your content

For the purposes of getting people to choose your content, your summary should attempt to:

Work with your title rather than duplicating it
Tell potential readers what benefit your content will bring them (or what pain they will suffer if they fail to…if that is the way you write)

Normally, you will want to avoid the following in your summaries:

Talking about yourself
Talking about your business
Including snippets of your content

Keep in mind that your summaries purpose is to pitch your article, not your business.

People typically select content because they want to solve a problem, learn something, or entertain themselves. Your summary should (in most cases) work to tell them how they will do one or more of these.

Consider the following two summaries:

The Whowazit Magic Mind Meld Marketing Method

This article is about getting more sales by increasing the traffic to your online store. It is written by Johnny Artifice, an experienced on-line seller that has used the method within to make a lot of money over the years. It includes information that can help you increase your on-line sales.
The Whowazit Magic Mind Meld Marketing Method

Say goodbye to discounting your inventory for good. Get more traffic and sales by learning to peek inside the minds of your target audience, find out exactly what they want, and then provide it to them. With these methods, you will quickly increase traffic from people who want to buy exactly what you are offering.

If you were to see these next to each other, which would you be more likely to choose?

Creating a good information marketing title

Privateer Web Solutions — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:20:33 +0000

When doing information marketing via normal methods, the title that you give your content is one of the most important pieces, if not the most important piece.

The Purpose of the Title
Your title, whether it be for an article, a web page, a video, a podcast, or anything else which might show up alongside a variety of similar content, serves two primary purposes: Getting search engine traffic Getting potential readers to choose your content rather than someone else’s. Getting Search Engine Traffic When search engines scan web pages for content, they typically give a lot of weight to the title of the page. On most sites, your title will be used in the pages title and enclosed in H1 tags on the page itself. Both of these things are used to tell a search engine what the primary content of the page is. It is for this reason that you should attempt to use the primary keyword that you are targeting as close to the front of your title as you can. Getting potential readers to choose your article From a reader perspective, the title of your content is generally what causes them to choose your content over someone else’s. If you have a weak title, it doesn’t matter how great the body is, few people are likely to select your content when it is displayed next to content with stronger titles.

The Purpose of the Title

Your title, whether it be for an article, a web page, a video, a podcast, or anything else which might show up alongside a variety of similar content, serves two primary purposes:

Getting search engine traffic
Getting potential readers to choose your content rather than someone else’s.

Getting Search Engine Traffic

When search engines scan web pages for content, they typically give a lot of weight to the title of the page.

On most sites, your title will be used in the pages title and enclosed in H1 tags on the page itself. Both of these things are used to tell a search engine what the primary content of the page is.

It is for this reason that you should attempt to use the primary keyword that you are targeting as close to the front of your title as you can.

Getting potential readers to choose your article

From a reader perspective, the title of your content is generally what causes them to choose your content over someone else’s.

If you have a weak title, it doesn’t matter how great the body is, few people are likely to select your content when it is displayed next to content with stronger titles.

Creating a Strong Title
Strong article titles will typically be reasonably long and do one or more of the following: Appeal to a readers emotions Address one of the "Seven deadly sins" Sound as if they are sharing a secret Strongly state that they will solve a perceived problem If you can create a title which does more than one of these, includes your targeted keyword or phrase early in it, is relevant to your article, and still sounds good, you probably have a title which will perform well. For example, consider the following two titles: Information marketing for online selling Stop trying to increase sales by slashing prices and learn a proven method of increasing traffic to your online store immediately Looking at them next to each other, which one do you think would be more likely to get someone to click on it? The first tells exactly what is being offered, but is rather mundane and unlikely to catch the eye of anyone when it is listed among other information. The second, while long, includes multiple strong keywords, speaks directly to online sellers, addresses the common emotional distaste for lowering prices to try and make more sales, addresses the want for more traffic ( strongly associated with more sales ), and promises to provide a solution to the sellers problem (lack of customers and/or sales). While I, personally, would be more prone to choose the first title because it is simple and plain, most people would choose the second because it is a bit more exciting.

Creating a Strong Title

Strong article titles will typically be reasonably long and do one or more of the following:

Appeal to a readers emotions
Address one of the "Seven deadly sins"
Sound as if they are sharing a secret
Strongly state that they will solve a perceived problem

If you can create a title which does more than one of these, includes your targeted keyword or phrase early in it, is relevant to your article, and still sounds good, you probably have a title which will perform well.

For example, consider the following two titles:

Information marketing for online selling
Stop trying to increase sales by slashing prices and learn a proven method of increasing traffic to your online store immediately

Looking at them next to each other, which one do you think would be more likely to get someone to click on it?

The first tells exactly what is being offered, but is rather mundane and unlikely to catch the eye of anyone when it is listed among other information.

The second, while long, includes multiple strong keywords, speaks directly to online sellers, addresses the common emotional distaste for lowering prices to try and make more sales, addresses the want for more traffic ( strongly associated with more sales ), and promises to provide a solution to the sellers problem (lack of customers and/or sales).

While I, personally, would be more prone to choose the first title because it is simple and plain, most people would choose the second because it is a bit more exciting.

WordPress SEO With the Platinum SEO plugin

Privateer Web Solutions — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:50:45 +0000

The Platinum SEO plugin for WordPress is an excellent plugin for taking care of search optimization on WordPress sites.

Platinum SEO Plugin Information
With the Platinum SEO plugin installed, you can: Specify the meta description for each page on your site This can help significantly when competing with other pages for clicks on search results. Specify the meta keywords for each page on your site Not terribly important these days, but still nice. Set the noodp robots tag This tells Google to display your meta description as the page summary under your link on their search engine. Set the noydir robots tag This tells Yahoo to display your meta description as the summary under your link on their search engine. Automatically do 301 redirects for permalink changes This is great for those times when you need to change a permalink for some reason. Specify rewriting of particular types of page titles Particularly handy for short "Page" page names Set the noindex robots command for various types of archives, comments, and feeds Add nofollow automatically to particular types of links Good for preventing the passing of too much page rank to your archives pages Add extra post, page, and home headers If you run a WordPress site and want to get it ranked up in search engines more easily, the Platinum SEO plugin is a great way to go.
Resources: Get the Platinum SEO Plugin See the Platinum SEO FAQ Read more on the benefits of the Platinum SEO plugin

Platinum SEO Plugin Information

With the Platinum SEO plugin installed, you can:

Specify the meta description for each page on your site: This can help significantly when competing with other pages for clicks on search results.
Specify the meta keywords for each page on your site: Not terribly important these days, but still nice.
Set the noodp robots tag: This tells Google to display your meta description as the page summary under your link on their search engine.
Set the noydir robots tag: This tells Yahoo to display your meta description as the summary under your link on their search engine.
Automatically do 301 redirects for permalink changes: This is great for those times when you need to change a permalink for some reason.
Specify rewriting of particular types of page titles: Particularly handy for short "Page" page names
Set the noindex robots command for various types of archives, comments, and feeds
Add nofollow automatically to particular types of links: Good for preventing the passing of too much page rank to your archives pages
Add extra post, page, and home headers

If you run a WordPress site and want to get it ranked up in search engines more easily, the Platinum SEO plugin is a great way to go.

Resources:

Get the Platinum SEO Plugin
See the Platinum SEO FAQ
Read more on the benefits of the Platinum SEO plugin

The Composition of a Search Optimized Web Page

Privateer Web Solutions — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:42:47 +0000

How well a search engine rates a web page is determined in part by the optimization of components on that web page.

While it is entirely possible to build a well optimized page without realizing it, knowing what types of things are typically looked at by search engines when deciding the order to display pages in can help your pages rank higher reliably.

The Components of an Optimized Web Page
The Page Title Page Section: HTML Tag: Shown to users in browser title bars and tab names Used as the default bookmark name Meta Description Page Section: HTML Tag: Shown to users as the page summary in some search engines Not shown to users on your site by most browsers See noodp and noydir for getting this to show in Google and Yahoo Meta Keywords Page Section: HTML Tag: Not shown to users by most browsers and search engines Not used as much as it used to be by major search engines Content Page Section: Important tags in your page body: Header Tags HTML Tag: , , , , , Used on page to surround important information such as the page title, subheaders, site title, etc. Image Alt, Title, and SRC Tags HTML Tag: Image is displayed to viewers Alt is displayed if the image cannot be displayed Title is shown when the image is hovered over Bold, Underline, and Emphasize Tags HTML Tags: , , , Displays enclosed text in bold, underlines it, or emphasizes it Hyperlink Tags HTML Tag: Creates links to other pages or items on the internet

The Components of an Optimized Web Page

The Page Title

Page Section:

HTML Tag:

Shown to users in browser title bars and tab names

Used as the default bookmark name

Meta Description

Page Section:

HTML Tag:

Shown to users as the page summary in some search engines

Not shown to users on your site by most browsers

See noodp and noydir for getting this to show in Google and Yahoo

Meta Keywords

Page Section:

HTML Tag:

Not shown to users by most browsers and search engines

Not used as much as it used to be by major search engines

Content

Page Section:

Important tags in your page body:

Header Tags: HTML Tag:
,
,
,
,
,; Used on page to surround important information such as the page title, subheaders, site title, etc.
Image Alt, Title, and SRC Tags: HTML Tag:; Image is displayed to viewers; Alt is displayed if the image cannot be displayed; Title is shown when the image is hovered over
Bold, Underline, and Emphasize Tags: HTML Tags: , , ,; Displays enclosed text in bold, underlines it, or emphasizes it
Hyperlink Tags: HTML Tag:; Creates links to other pages or items on the internet

Keywords as Applied to Page Creation
When creating a content page on the internet, it is a good idea to consider what the page is going to be about and then decide upon primary words and/or phrases that you want to focus on in the page. These words and phrases, commonly called keywords, let you easily build well targeted pages that search engines will rank well. When deciding upon key words and phrases for a page that you want people to find, it is a good idea to do at least a little bit of keyword research. Keyword research consists of finding out what words and phrases people actually use when looking for the kind of information you are going to provide on your page. By doing keyword research before you build a page, you can reinforce the page to rank well for searches on your chosen keywords.
Resources: Keyword Research for Targeted Marketing

Keywords as Applied to Page Creation

When creating a content page on the internet, it is a good idea to consider what the page is going to be about and then decide upon primary words and/or phrases that you want to focus on in the page.

These words and phrases, commonly called keywords, let you easily build well targeted pages that search engines will rank well.

When deciding upon key words and phrases for a page that you want people to find, it is a good idea to do at least a little bit of keyword research.

Keyword research consists of finding out what words and phrases people actually use when looking for the kind of information you are going to provide on your page.

By doing keyword research before you build a page, you can reinforce the page to rank well for searches on your chosen keywords.

Resources:

Keyword Research for Targeted Marketing

The Page Title Tag
Your page title is used to tell people and search robots what your page is about. This is not the title displayed to readers, but rather the title that is included in the head section of your html document. A strong title should: Include the primary keyword for your page Tell people what the page is about If you are familiar with information marketing, many of the concepts which apply to an article title apply just as well to a page title.

The Page Title Tag

Your page title is used to tell people and search robots what your page is about.

This is not the title displayed to readers, but rather the title that is included in the head section of your html document.

A strong title should:

Include the primary keyword for your page
Tell people what the page is about

If you are familiar with information marketing, many of the concepts which apply to an article title apply just as well to a page title.

The Meta Description Tag
This tag is used to tell people what the page is about in a few short sentences. It is most commonly used to display a brief summary of the page for people who are browsing lists of pages, particularly in search engines. A strong meta description should: Include your primary keyword near the front of if it Include a couple of secondary keywords Read naturally Tell people what benefit reading the page will bring them Tell people what is on the page From an information marketing standpoint, your meta description should be treated much like an article summary. To get Google to show your meta description, use the noodp command in your robots header tag. To get Yahoo to show your meta description, use the noydir command in your robots header tag.
Resources: Googles Webmaster Site Management Page Yahoo Search Content Quality Guidelines

The Meta Description Tag

This tag is used to tell people what the page is about in a few short sentences.

It is most commonly used to display a brief summary of the page for people who are browsing lists of pages, particularly in search engines.

A strong meta description should:

Include your primary keyword near the front of if it
Include a couple of secondary keywords
Read naturally
Tell people what benefit reading the page will bring them
Tell people what is on the page

From an information marketing standpoint, your meta description should be treated much like an article summary.

To get Google to show your meta description, use the noodp command in your robots header tag.

To get Yahoo to show your meta description, use the noydir command in your robots header tag.

Resources:

The Meta Keyword Tag
This tag is used to tell people what the primary keywords for your page are. These days, it is typically not used by the major search engines due to the fact that pages themselves note what is on them and it is easily abused by webmasters. However, it is still used by some engines and, if you don’t mind people knowing specifically which words you are targeting on a page, placing them here is a good idea. When creating a meta keyword tag: Avoid repetitive keywords For example: Toys, Kids Toys, Children’s Toys, Boys Toys, Toddler Toys, Girls Toys, Infants Toys, Wooden Toys, Fun Toys Toy, Kid, Child, Boy, Girl, Infant, Wood, Fun The first entry might be seen as keyword stuffing by search engines because you are using the same word within a lot of different phrases. The second entry cuts out the redundancy and uses each word once. Avoid words unrelated to the page in question This may seem obvious, but if you are going to specify keywords, they should be relevant to the current page. Other than not stuffing your meta keywords tag and using relevant words, I wouldn’t worry too much about this attribute as it is viewed as unreliable by most search engines.

The Meta Keyword Tag

This tag is used to tell people what the primary keywords for your page are.

These days, it is typically not used by the major search engines due to the fact that pages themselves note what is on them and it is easily abused by webmasters.

However, it is still used by some engines and, if you don’t mind people knowing specifically which words you are targeting on a page, placing them here is a good idea.

When creating a meta keyword tag:

Avoid repetitive keywords

For example:

Toys, Kids Toys, Children’s Toys, Boys Toys, Toddler Toys, Girls Toys, Infants Toys, Wooden Toys, Fun Toys
Toy, Kid, Child, Boy, Girl, Infant, Wood, Fun

The first entry might be seen as keyword stuffing by search engines because you are using the same word within a lot of different phrases.

The second entry cuts out the redundancy and uses each word once.

Avoid words unrelated to the page in question

This may seem obvious, but if you are going to specify keywords, they should be relevant to the current page.

Other than not stuffing your meta keywords tag and using relevant words, I wouldn’t worry too much about this attribute as it is viewed as unreliable by most search engines.

Page Content and Tags
When building a page to rank well with search engines, keep the following in mind: Strong content and readability are important Good content will tend to naturally have a good mix of keywords, get people to read your page, and even get people to link back to it or refer other people to it. Search engines are trying to think like people, so you really don’t need to spend a lot of time fretting over the optimal number of keywords to include in your page. use your targeted keywords in a natural manner while providing good content and you should not need to revise pages for search ranking purposes. Use your primary keyword in your page title and surround the title with H1 tags If your displayed page title matches the page title in the html head section, all the better. Placing H1 tags around the displayed page title tells search engines that it is the most important thing on the page. By using your primary keyword and enclosing it in H1 tags, you are telling search engines that your title is important and that your primary keyword is as well. Use H2, H3, etc. tags for sections of your page If you are writing content that breaks down well into subsections with subheaders, you can note that your subheaders are important by using header tags around them. This gives them more emphasis than using specific bold or underline tags. When including images: Give them descriptive alt tags Alt tags are displayed when an image cannot be displayed for some reason. If you use your alt tag to provide a short description of what is being shown, search engines will know what is being displayed. Give your images good names If you include an image of an apple pie, give it an appropriate name. img0124534.jpg doesn’t tell search engines anything. fresh-baked-apple-pie.jpg does tell search engines something useful. Give your images a good title The title tag not only tells search engines about the image, it also displays in most browsers when a user hovers their mouse over it. Emphasize important words or ideas If you do not link important words or phrases, you can make them stand out with bold, underline, or emphasis tags. Search engines often use these tags to tell what things on a page are important. Build good hyperlinks When placing links on your pages: Use title tags to give a short description of where a user is going These are normally displayed when someone puts their pointer over a link. Choose good names for your links Linked text is typically considered to be emphasized. "How to bake an apple pie" might be better than "Johnnies page" if the page tells people how to bake an apple pie. Use rel="nofollow" attributes liberally By including this attribute in your links, you avoid passing page rank on to linked pages. I would recommend including this attribute on both external links ( unless you want to promote someone elses site ) and links to pages on your own site which you don’t want to pass page rank onto from other pages ( your about me page, contact page, terms of service, etc. ) Use target="_blank" for external links that lead to other peoples sites This will cause the link to open in a different window or tab by default. It leaves your page open and opens a new one…so when they are done looking at the other one, your page is still there. The most important thing is your content. If you give people what they are looking for, chances are that at least some of them will link to your page and/or refer it to other people…giving your site even more traffic.

Page Content and Tags

When building a page to rank well with search engines, keep the following in mind:

Strong content and readability are important

Good content will tend to naturally have a good mix of keywords, get people to read your page, and even get people to link back to it or refer other people to it.

Search engines are trying to think like people, so you really don’t need to spend a lot of time fretting over the optimal number of keywords to include in your page. use your targeted keywords in a natural manner while providing good content and you should not need to revise pages for search ranking purposes.

Use your primary keyword in your page title and surround the title with H1 tags

If your displayed page title matches the page title in the html head section, all the better.

Placing H1 tags around the displayed page title tells search engines that it is the most important thing on the page.

By using your primary keyword and enclosing it in H1 tags, you are telling search engines that your title is important and that your primary keyword is as well.

Use H2, H3, etc. tags for sections of your page

If you are writing content that breaks down well into subsections with subheaders, you can note that your subheaders are important by using header tags around them. This gives them more emphasis than using specific bold or underline tags.

When including images:

Give them descriptive alt tags: Alt tags are displayed when an image cannot be displayed for some reason.; If you use your alt tag to provide a short description of what is being shown, search engines will know what is being displayed.
Give your images good names: If you include an image of an apple pie, give it an appropriate name.; img0124534.jpg doesn’t tell search engines anything.; fresh-baked-apple-pie.jpg does tell search engines something useful.
Give your images a good title: The title tag not only tells search engines about the image, it also displays in most browsers when a user hovers their mouse over it.

Emphasize important words or ideas

If you do not link important words or phrases, you can make them stand out with bold, underline, or emphasis tags.

Search engines often use these tags to tell what things on a page are important.

Build good hyperlinks

When placing links on your pages:

Use title tags to give a short description of where a user is going: These are normally displayed when someone puts their pointer over a link.
Choose good names for your links: Linked text is typically considered to be emphasized.; "How to bake an apple pie" might be better than "Johnnies page" if the page tells people how to bake an apple pie.
Use rel="nofollow" attributes liberally: By including this attribute in your links, you avoid passing page rank on to linked pages.; I would recommend including this attribute on both external links ( unless you want to promote someone elses site ) and links to pages on your own site which you don’t want to pass page rank onto from other pages ( your about me page, contact page, terms of service, etc. )
Use target="_blank" for external links that lead to other peoples sites: This will cause the link to open in a different window or tab by default.; It leaves your page open and opens a new one…so when they are done looking at the other one, your page is still there.

Using Plumdrop to increase visitors to your store traffic site

Privateer Web Solutions — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:25:32 +0000

Plumdrop is touted as a place to meet up, chat, and socialize with other sellers.

Some of the things I like best about Plumdrop:

You can list all of your online selling venues on it
It provides a blog with dofollow links
You can give people extra information about you, your enterprise, and the things you sell
You can join a variety of groups and meet like-minded sellers

For the purposes of driving traffic to your store traffic site, Plumdrop gives you an extra platform to notify people about the various things you sell…while allowing you to create backlinks to your own site however you want.

Creating a Plumdrop account

Go to Plumdrop.com

Select "Sign up in under 5 minutes"

This will take you to the signup page

Fill out the signup form:

Your email address
verify your email
A password
Verify your password
A nickname (to display publicly
Your zip code (to find people locally)
Business title (the name of your enterprise)
Descrption (yeah, it’s spelled wrong)
Business Tags
The best category for what you offer
A photo ( if you want, can change it later )
Agree to the terms of service
Choose to signup to the newsletter or not

Select "Complete Signup"

Confirm your account creation

Once you have your account created, I’d recommend taking a look around and then doing some initial profile setup.

Plumdrop Profile Setup

When logged in, select "My Account" to see a variety of available options. The below are those I recommend filling in to start with:

"My Profile": You filled this in when you created your account.; Used to update your store title, store description, store tags, main store category, and profile picture.
"My Groups": I recommend joining groups for both your selling venue and the types of products you sell; You can leave posts in groups
"My Deals": If you setup any coupons for your store, you can use My Deals to add coupons for fellow Plumdrop users
"My Venues": Add your online stores here with names, titles, and urls.

Adding a blog entry to your Plumdrop Page

Once you have things setup, I recommend creating at least one blog entry with information about your store traffic site and/or online store.

Log into Plumdrop, if you are not logged in
Select "My Plumdrop Page": This will display your plumdrop page
Select "View Blog" from the right menu: This will display your Plumdrop blog
Select "Post new blog entry" from the left side: This will open the blog entry creation page
Create your blog entry: This is like creating a new post in wordpress.; Enter a title for your blog entry; Enter the contents of your post (in design or html view).; I recommend an introduction, a link to your store traffic site, and a link to your online store for your first post.; Be sure to create good backlinks! Use keywords as links!
Note whether or not you want to allow comments
Select "Post New Blog Entry!": Your entry will be posted.; You now have another quality backlink using your search keywords

Putting Plumdrop to Use

Going forward, I recommend at least creating occasional posts to your Plumdrop blog, especially when you create new product showcases, new category showcases, or new special offers.

Remember to avoid circular links and to create quality backlinks!

My Plumdrop Page

You can find me on Plumdrop under LibertyUnchained.

Using twitter to increase store traffic site visitors

Privateer Web Solutions — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:16:13 +0000

Twitter is a social networking site that allows you to place brief bits of information up ( called tweets ) which people who have opted to follow you can see.

For the purposes of increasing your search traffic and getting more people to your store, it has the following going for it:

You can place links to whatever you want in your tweets
Those who want to see what you are doing will see them
Twitter has a pagerank of 9, which is about as good as it gets

Most of the excellent internet marketers I know who use twitter note that they get the best results when they mix both business and personal information. For example, instead of just listing products, sales, etc., they also give bits and pieces of information detailing what they are up to or interesting things they have seen.

Creating a Twitter Account

Go to the Twitter signup page
Fill in the form provided: Full Name; Username; Password; Email; Whether or not you want email updates; The Captcha
Select "Create my account": This will take you to a page where you can search for existing friends on other services; I tend to skip this step
Select "Skip this step": Or see if you have friends on Yahoo, AOL, or Gmail
Uncheck any of the default people to follow who you don’t want to follow: I just uncheck the select all box and uncheck all of them
Select "Finish" or "Skip this step": Your twitter account is now created!

Setting up your Twitter Account

Once your twitter account is setup, you can start using Twitter right away and/or setup your profile and options.

On your profile page, you can add a photo by selecting the "Add a photo" box near the top right.

On your settings page, there are various tabs with different information. Some of the more important ones are listed below. Be sure to select Save on each page to save any changes.

"Account" → "More Info URL": This should be a link to your store traffic site (or online store)
"Account" → "One Line Bio": About your or your store, in 160 characters or less
"Design": You can customize the look of your twitter page here.

Using your Twitter Account

Now that you have your account setup, a picture, a link to your website, and a short blurb about your site setup, it is time to start making use of twitter.

Your first "Tweet"

To start with, I’d place up a simple tweet linking your site.

Select "Home" from the twitter nav bar while you are logged in
Enter a link to your site in the "What are you doing?" box: I recommend a description in there too…at least as much of one as you can fit in 120 characters.

If you want, you might consider using one of the widgets or plugins made for twitter. A few can be found at The WordPress page on the Twitter Fan Wiki.

Going forward, you should consider creating "Tweets" for articles you write while doing article marketing, specials you are having, interesting new products you are offering, free resources you put up, contests, and even random thoughts you find interesting.

My Twitter Page

My twitter account for this site is privateerweb, so fell free to follow me by visiting http://twitter.com/privateerweb if you want updates on various things as I do them.

Gaining followers

One good way to get twitter followers is to start following people. Use the search functionality on the right, look over the results, and follow whomever you want. With this account, I will be following Bonanzle sellers *grin* and people talking about internet marketing.

The Nature of Quality Backlinks

Privateer Web Solutions — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:26:59 +0000

Backlinks are simply links from other sites on the internet which point people back to your site.

The quality of a link from another site depends upon several factors:

The page rank of the site which links to you: Page rank is an artificial rank provided by search engines to decide how much authority a particular site has.; Page rank starts at 0 and goes up as high as 10, with each rank being many times better than the previous rank.; A single link from a page rank 8 site can be worth thousands of times as much as a link from a page rank 0 site.
The wording of the link which points to your site: Getting a link via your sites primary targeted keywords is worth a lot more than getting a link via your store name…unless you are really working for brand recognition.; If a search engine sees a link to your site with the words "excellent antique books", then it will give you some rank for those words in searches.; If, however, the link uses the words "Tims Magical Stuff", then search engines will give you some rank for "Tims Magical Stuff". This is still good, but not nearly as good as "excellent antique books" if antique books is one of your sites targeted keywords.
The type of site linking to your site: If you get a link from a high page rank site of good reputation, then your sites authority can get a good boost.; If, however, you get a link from a blacklisted site, your sites authority might actually drop a bit. Typically, however, this isn’t too bad unless you have almost all of your links from sites of ill repute and none from authority sites.
Whether the link has nofollow set or not: Links back to your site which have rel="nofollow" in them do not seem to help your page rank, though they do provide a place for more people to find your site from, which is almost always a good thing.

Now that you know what a good link is composed of, you know how to create the best links to your own site when you have the option to choose the links words. This is one of the reasons that I recommend keeping a keyword log for your site handy. If you can get ten good links pointing to your domain which use your targeted keywords, chances are good that your site will soon start showing up on the first page of major search engines for those keywords…provided that there isn’t too much competition for them.

To see a sites page rank in Google, get the Google Toolbar for Mozilla.

And yes, there is a lot more that could be said on backlinks, but the above should be good enough to get started with ranking your site.