Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

Significance of a Content Writer in SEO Industry

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Well, you must have come across the term ‘SEO’ or Search Engine Optimization. For website owners, this is quite a familiar term. SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website in top search engines. Now, the entire process involves several steps like building strong keywords, links, on-page optimization, off-page optimization, meta-tags and of course writing quality contents. Therefore, depending on the nature of job, professionals are hired. For instance, link builders are assigned in the job creating new links; SEO executives for submission and bookmarking and similarly SEO content writers for producing fresh quality contents.

Amongst all these professionals, the job of a content writer is usually considered to be the toughest. In fact, the demand of content writers is increasing day after day since the search engines are demanding for more and more contents. Therefore, plenty of content writing companies have been established at various corners of the world where professional content writers are hired for writing high quality articles and blogs for specific websites.

So, if you are having a website that has not been fetching good traffic, you need to hire professional writers who can write on any subject of your choice. The better your website contents, the higher the chances of alluring good traffic.

A Few Errors Committed by SEO Link Builders

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

When you take a firm determination to optimize your website and bring it to the acme in top search engines, you try several strategies that can fetch huge traffic to your site. Right from inserting PPC ads to creating a buzz, you try tooth and nail to make your site fly higher and higher. Despite all such initiatives, you find that your competitors are gradually attempting to outmatch you with every step. So, there must be something that is obstructing your site from getting good rankings.
Here are two common errors usually committed by website optimizers and link builders:

Selection of Keywords based on Search Volume

It’s a common notion among SEO professionals that the more the traffic the higher the chances to get better results for the site. Well, this does not work always. If the traffic coming to your page does not feel interested to search the actual content of your site, it’s useless to expect positive results for your site.

If you think that you can benefit with keywords recording the highest number of monthly searches by a keyword tool of any search engine, you might not make considerable profits. In fact, you need to focus and understand the needs and wants of your potential customers. In fact, the keywords you choose must be relevant enough to the actual content of your business website.

Building Links Only on the Homepage

Website optimizers who think that their homepage is the only page where they can build links and fetch good traffic, they are absolutely wrong. Instead, you should try linking all the crucial pages of your site and not the home page alone.

A Blog can Complement your Established Website

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Your witty marketing strategies and hard work have taken your website rankings right on the top of the search engines. In fact, you have made perfect use of the SEO tools and today your competitors are dying to outrun you. Now that your website has hit the acme, you are further planning to insert a blog into your website that can keep your readers updated about your products and services. Moreover, web users have a propensity to click the very first site that stands on the peak of the search engine. So, creating a blog can always keep your site on the top.

A blog can undoubtedly serve as an efficient marketing tool especially for someone who is already having a recognized business website. In fact, the best way to expand your business is by incorporating fresh contents and catchy designs in a blog and letting people know of your services. A blog therefore can play an effective medium in delivering information about your products and services to worldwide customers. Your sole intention will be to attract the reputed search engines and compel your customers to visit your site repeatedly.

WordPress and Blogger are two popular and flexible platforms that can help you create complete functional blogs for free. In fact, the blogs created here will absolutely match up to your company website and will be hosted on a completely different server.

A blog can always be created on an external free platform in quick time. However, you need to kill a few hours to ensure that the configuration options are correct and that everything harmonizes with the website of your company. Remember, a professionally designed blog can take your business to new heights.

5 Essential SEO Tools to Better Manage Your SEO Tasks

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

SEO or search engine optimization is a technique by which the visibility of a website is made prominent in the search engine results. There are many websites which are being developed and hosted almost every day. But they do not become featured at the very first page of Google search. There are certain tools and techniques that are applied so that the rankings of these websites are enhanced in the various search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. The best part about the SEO tools is that one can completely track the things that go on in the website from tracking the traffic to tracking the bounce rate and so on.

Doing SEO manually is quite a daunting task and the results are also farfetched. Therefore it is best to use some SEO tools that will help in faster search engine optimization and give you quicker results. These tools save a lot of time and energy that can be used in other SEO works like analyzing and comparing data from various sources. The greatest advantage of using various SEO tools is that it helps in accelerating the SEO process manifold times. Retrieving and gathering data also becomes much organized with SEO tools. Newer SEO tools are coming up every day and using them are making SEO easier.
There are both on-page and off-page SEO tools that can be easily used to get good search results.
Some off-page search engine optimization tools are as follows:

  • Open Site Explorer – This is one of the best off page optimization tools that can be used. The SEO tool is from SEOmoz and is a very powerful one. The Open Site Explorer is a tool that acts as link popularity checker along with back link analysis too. The tool comes in free as well as paid versions. In the paid version, there are more usability features that you can use for your SEO requirements. The tool also offers a 30 day free trial offer, during which you can test if this tool is really useful for your needs.
  • Link Diagnosis – This is a great SEO tool that helps you to check and analyze the websites’ link profiles. It is a free tool that enables in checking link profiles for not only your website but the website of your competitors’ as well. With the help of this tool, one can see the “no-follow” links, the “good” links as well as the “missing” links.
  • Whitespark Location Citation Finder – This tool proves to be very useful for local SEO. Finding the places of listings has become easier with Whitespark Location Citation Finder. On entering a keyword in their search field, you will be provided with all the citation sources. This tool also comes in free as well as paid versions.

Some of the on-page SEO tools that are highly beneficial are as follows:

  • Link Assistant’s Website Auditor – There is a SEOmoz tool exactly like the Link Assistant’s Website Auditor. This tool helps in doing an on-page optimization and analysis of your website along with the website of your competitor. This wonderful SEO tool is available in free as well as paid versions.
  • SEOmoz On-Page Report Card – As the name says, this tool acts as a report card for while assessing and analyzing the basic elements of a webpage. The tool gives a clear idea on the various ways as how the particular page can be optimized. After analyzing the page, the tools help in upgrading your webpage. However, this tool is only available for professional account holders.

Exclusive Google Search Tips to Do Google Search Efficiently

Monday, May 30th, 2011

It is foolish to ask who does not use Google. Professionals like web writers, online learners and Internet marketers use Google multiple times a day. But many are not familiar with the exact ways of diving into the search world of Google. If your way of searching the Internet giant is all about typing a few phrases or words in the search box, you need tips to improve the search process. No use of keep changing the search words or phrases or queries to get information, images, videos and audios of your choice.

No need to make desperate attempts to get at what you are looking for in Google. Don’t frustrate yourself with futile searches so much that you feel compelled to snatch your hair. This blog post has brought to you the exact ways of Google search or unique Google search tips. My list of Google search tips is not comprehensive. However, you can rank among the Google search experts by using the tips listed below:

Explicit Search

Suppose, you need information about social media marketing. Most probably, you will type social media marketing in the search box of Google. Google will reply to your search with results both relevant and irrelevant to social media marketing. Therefore, it is better to make an explicit search by keeping the phrase social media marketing within double quotes. Explicit search will get you only relevant results on the topic of your choice.

For example: “social media marketing”

Exclude Words

Suppose, you are using social media marketing as the key phrase to get information on the same. The search result pages may return results related to social media content or social media advertising besides social media marketing. To exclude the results containing the term content from the search result pages on social media marketing, use the sign (-) between the your key phrase and the word to be excluded.
For example: “social media marketing” – content

Relative Search Word

If you want exclusive search results on content development related to social media marketing, use the phrase content development along with social media marketing in the following fashion:

For example: “social media marketing” ~ content development

Specific Document Type Search

If you are looking for search results containing a specific file type, to say PowerPoint presentation on social media marketing, you had better use filetype as the modifier in the search phrase.
For example: “social media marketing” filetype:ppt

This OR That

When you make search on a particular phrase in Google, the search engine conducts the search not only on the phrase but also on other terms closely related to the phrase. As a result, it presents mixed search results. If you work on two relative phrases and need information on any of them, you should type the two phrases in this pattern: this OR that.

For example: social media marketing OR advertising

Online Calculation

If you want to do an instant calculation, go online instead of using the calculator application and type the numerical digits along with the necessary instruction for division or multiplication or addition or subtraction in the Google search box.

For example: 54789 * 190

If you need the definition of a phrase or word or any other thing, go online and use the command “define” along with the word or phrase in the search box.

For example: define: rainbow

Hope, you will find these Google search tips much useful and helpful. If you know any Google search tip that is beyond this list, please share it with me in comments…

How-to-do Tips for SEO of LinkedIn Profiles

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

LinkedIn having a huge base of 100 million users tops the list of professional networking sites. Want to build a professional network, to promote your company website, to fetch traffic for your official blog and create a professional identity online? LinkedIn is the ultimate stop. Log on to LinkedIn and sign up to create a professional profile. LinkedIn profiles, if created and maintained from SEO perspective, can boost their owners’ presence on search engine result pages. Here is how to make your LinkedIn profile potential from SEO point of view:

Link with your profile – A social media profile with links for social, entertainment, communication or professional purpose gains momentum in Google. Similar is the case of LinkedIn profiles. You can link your website and blog to LinkedIn by attaching the website and blog’s URLs to My Website and My Blog sections of your profile. These two links are categorized as ‘follow’ links. Most of the users on a visit to your profile are sure to click their way to your blog and website through the attached links.

First impression of your profile – Google crawls the content of web pages in the top-to-toe fashion. Therefore, it is better to stuff the top of your LinkedIn profile with the most relevant info about you. Place the keywords related to your professional sphere and specialization at the top of the profile so that recruiters and others can easily get to know what you are at the very first glance. You can add the niche terms related to your professional identity in the ‘Summary’ and ‘Specialties’ sections of the LinkedIn profile.

Use keywords to make profile searchable – Many recruiters looking for PHP developers (for example) use a set of keywords like ‘LinkedIn + PHP developers’ to access the LinkedIn profiles of PHP developers. So, optimize your profile in a SEO-oriented way by including the right keyword relevant to your profession in the info of summary, skills and specialties.

Get hits for tweets on LinkedIn – Spice up your profile a bit. Link your Twitter account to the LinkedIn profile. It is a good opportunity to get hits for your tweets, from LinkedIn.

Customize the Profile URL – A LinkedIn profile with a random numbered URL is neither Google-friendly nor searchable. A customized URL with your name makes your LinkedIn profile searchable in search engines. You can customize the profile URL in the Public Profile section.

How to Use Google Plus One (+1) for Better Social SEO

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Google, the Goliath of online search, is never at rest. The ceaseless tempo of the Search giant is synonymous with constant innovation and nonstop evolution. Next to e-Books, Plus One or +1 is another wonder from Google’s kit to cast a spell on the users. It is being speculated to be a social feature of Google’s search service. Many think that Google +1 is a challenge to Facebook and Twitter.

Google’s + 1 is almost akin to ‘Like’ button on Facebook. It is supposed to be as impactful as likes on Facebook and retweets on Twitter. It will add as much value to a website or blog in search engine result pages as a post with likes and retweets get in social search results. What distinguishes Plus One from the features of social media sites is its direct influence on Google search results.

As Google dominates the online search world, any new change in the way the search magnate works impacts the global SEO field. Google +1 is, in fact, a recommendation button. It will help the users recommend a website, a blog or any other online post of their choice to their friends and the members in their social networks. The recommended website or blog will be more visible in Google’s search result pages.

To access Plus One, you need to have a Google profile. The profile will be accessible to the contacts in your Gmail, Google Talk and Google Buzz networks. You can import your Facebook friends and Twitter followers to the Plus One network. You can use your contacts on social media sites to get your website or blog recommended by them directly. The more +1 recommendations, the higher value for the site or blog in Google’s search result listings.

As per a report from Matt Cutts, Google Plus One has lots of potential for social SEO. It is a new powerful SEO approach to fetching traffic from different parts of the web world. Now you need to go social more actively in order to enrich your +1 network. It is assumed that SEO professionals will develop better social media communication strategies to increase their social media contacts so that they can build a huge Plus One network to get recommendations for their clients’ sites, blogs and brands.

To make use of Google +1 for the benefit of their clients, SEO professionals need to restructure their Google profiles. People will visit the Google profile of the person who will recommend a site or blog using +1. If the profile is convincing, the recommendation will work. People may not go with the person’s recommendation, if they find his Google profile uninteresting or unconvincing.

This social feature of Google is available in the English market. It will be launched internationally a little while later. Now the time has come to build a huge social media follower base and spice up your Google profile page, if you intent to promote your site or blog and fetch traffic for it using +1.

Conversion Rate Optimization Sets Websites High on Revenue Meter

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Conversion rate optimization is what can make a big difference to levels of revenue from your websites. Revenue generates from not only visitors but also their actions commercially known as conversions. You might have numerous arrows in your quiver. If the arrows do not hit the bull’s eye, they are of no use. Likewise, the design and content of a website are the bets to trap visitors and make them take action on the website. If visits to the website do not convert into conversions, the visual and textual display of the website’s landing page needs a professional touch in look and feel.

The following are the USPs of a website’s landing page for conversions and revenue generation:

• Design
• Layout
• Visuals
• Copy or content
• Usability
• Calls to action

Conversion rate optimization is the optimization of these factors that persuade visitors to spring into action on websites. CRO is the latest trick for search engine optimizers, content writers and internet marketers to troubleshoot the problems in websites’ main pages targeted for conversions. Creativity, professionalism and business perspective are what make a success of conversion rate optimization projects. SEO helps fetch traffic and CRO helps build conversions.

What does Conversion rate optimization involve?

• Analysing landing page design
• Analysing landing page content
• Implementing required changes

Webpage Design

A website’s design is a most important factor influencing the action of visitors on the website. The way websites are designed dominates the look of the websites. Design is the very first thing that grabs eyeballs when a website loads and opens. Webpage design also consists of instructions for the visitors on what they need to do on the page. Color schemes, patterns, buttons, layout, etc. are different visit-to-action converting elements of webpage design. It must be professional, if you want it to be perfect. It must be convincing, if you want it to be converting. Professional design helps a website achieve its conversion goals. CRO experts come up with creative design ideas that really do wonders.

Webpage Title

Writing conversion-rate-influencing headlines or titles for webpages requires a synthesis of creativity and professionalism. The headline of a website’s landing page that is meant for building conversions should be as powerful as a magnet to pique the visitors’ interest. After a page loads, it is the headline of the page where a visitor’s attention goes right to. A page headline should be given a second thought before it is finalized. Then come the copy or content of a website’s landing page.

Webpage Content

If headlines work to catch visitors’ attention, content works to hold it on. Creativity and professionalism should go hand in hand in the content or copy of websites’ landing pages. If the design elements of webpage are instructions for visitors, the page content is an elaboration on the instructions. It must be highly motivating and influencing, clear and comprehensible. CRO experts analyze the content, identify the dull areas and improve them to make the conversion rate soar. Therefore, CRO experts work in close association with content writers.

Thus, conversion rate optimization of a website’s landing page makes sure to set visitors on a smooth ride from headline at the top to call-to-action at the bottom. The magic of CRO is not letting visitors think of what you offer but making them try the offer itself at the first go.

Is SEO for PDFs too? If Yes, Know How to Optimize PDFs

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

PDFs for providing information, offering education material and being used for some other purposes are in vogue. A PDF file is like other online materials such as newsletters, press releases and blog posts. The potential of PDFs as a spectacular displayer of e-content, graphical or textual or both on websites is being extensively utilised for promotional purposes. An optimized PDF posted on a website can make its way to search engine result pages.

SEO tips for optimizing PDFs

Optimized PDFs mean search-engine friendly PDFs. This SEO based promotional trick has hit the jackpot for many search engine optimizers and website owners. If search engines are gold mines, the optimization of online materials ranging from webpage to blog, press release, newsletter and PDF is the process to dig into the mines. SEO for a webpage or a blog post is the same as that for PDFs.

The first important do is making sure the names of PDF files are useful for search in search engines. The file names should contain the search keywords or phrases that searchers are supposed to use for looking for the files across the Web. On strength of popular or much used search phrases or words in the names, the PDF files are sure to be visible in SERPs. For instance, Eparadiseindiaseo.pdf is much search engine friendlier than 1357.pdf.

The title tag of a PDF file is no less important than a webpage’s title tag. Therefore, PDF files’ title tags need the same SEO treatment as that for other online content formats. Keep the character limit for title tags of PDF files equal to that for a webpage’s title tag. Adobe Acrobat comes with a description field.

A description of a PDF file’s content is akin to a webpage’s Meta description in terms of importance. It will get displayed under the title tag in SERPs. The description should be informative to the core and concise. It must be telling the visitors why they should click on the link and what they will get. On Acrobat there are additional fields like ‘Additional Metadata’ to be filled in with to-the-point information. These help PDF files get ranked in some search engines.

Keyword-rich alt tags make webpages with images search engine friendly. The same SEO trick can be employed for images in PDF files. The keyword-driven alt tags for the images that a PDF file contains will make the search engine bots index the website where the PDF file is posted. It is all about onsite SEO for PDFs. What are off-site dos for the same?

Links are the most important among the off-site details of a webpage. Likewise, PDF files can be linked back to websites. It is good for both readers and search engine crawlers. If the visitors host your PDF file on their websites or share the file on social networking sites, the file itself acts as a backlink and drives traffic to the website of yours.

Do you agree or disagree with me? Let me know. Waiting for your response or reply…

How to Make Blog Posts Engaging to Engage the Reader

Monday, February 28th, 2011

I have written and posted ten blog entries in the “Blogging” category on www.eparadise-india.com/blog/ till date. Thanks to my readers who are a constant source of encouragement and inspiration for me. I have covered multiple different aspects of blogging in those posts. A question from one of the readers came my way last week. “How to write an engaging blog post?” or “How to structure an engaging blog post?” It clicked with me and grabbed my attention. This blog post of mine is the answer to the question.

Make the Intro a Magnetic Capsule

The intro of a write-up and the first sentence of the intro are immensely important. Target the introductory paragraph to connect with readers. Present it as a capsule of the information that you intend to cover in the post. Make sure that the intro is of magnetic quality to arrest attention and spark curiosity. If possible, use a vital question that is relevant to the topic as the first sentence of the intro. An opening interrogative sentence is sure to strike the reader.

End the Intro with a Riddle

Leave the intro with a riddle or puzzle in the last sentence to be solved in the next paragraph of the blog post. Keep the first and last sentences of the intro bold so as to grab the eyeballs. Reveal the significance of your topic for the post in the second paragraph. Let this paragraph tell the readers why the topic is important, why they should go through it or listen to you. End the paragraph with a striking sentence directing the reader to the next paragraph and firing their appetite to read more.

Offer Ideas or Tips in Third Para

How-to blogs and blogs offering solutions or providing tips are popular on the web. These blogs are most clickable primarily because of the information they provide. In the third paragraph, focus on how to do something or tips or solutions, if this type of content structure goes with the topic you have chosen. Original ideas or effective solutions or easy tips are always valuable. Borrowing the ideas or tips from some other source is no wrong. But present them in a new fashion. End it with a catchy note to drive the reader to the fourth paragraph.

Make Fourth Para an Explanatory Note

Start the fourth paragraph with an explanation telling the reader how they can put the ideas into application or how they can use the tips or how they can benefit from the solutions given in the preceding or third paragraph. Put flesh on the most important tips or ideas by illustrating them particularly in this paragraph. Let no confusion remain in this paragraph. Make it as much comprehensible as possible so that the reader can move on to the end paragraph.

It is an Art to Conclude the Post

How to conclude the post is no magic but an art. End the last paragraph with a thought-provoking question and answer it in the next blog entry. Conclude the post asking the reader for additional tips or suggestions in the last sentence. If you have got a suitable topic for the next blog post on your mind, leave an index to the next blog post topic at the bottom of this post. It really works to make the reader wait restlessly for the next post.