Increase relevant traffic to your business website with website optimization

The main aim of website optimization is to improve rankings of a website, so that its web traffic increases, which in turn, can help increase business. Website optimization has become even more important today, when a majority of online users use the net to search for products or services. If you are thinking of website optimization, you will need the help of a professional SEO services company. However, we have some tips which can help you become aware of some important factors for website optimization. Knowing these points will help you ask relevant questions and hire the right person for your website.

Consider the following website optimization points if you want to increase traffic to your website:

• Unique Content

The important of unique and fresh content for website optimization cannot be stressed on enough. Keep updating your website with interesting content, which will attract search engines to crawl your pages and increase its visibility online. You can also use content on your blog, which will help in website optimization. However, the purpose of putting relevant content on your website should not only be to attract search engines, it should also capture the interest of the website visitor. You can also use content for off-site optimization by posting articles, press releases and other relevant content, which will boost your search rankings and make your company more popular online. A SEO services company offering content writing services can help you with content for website optimization.

• Keywords

Putting keywords relevant to your business is the first step in the website optimization process. Your website should have all the relevant keywords included in the meta tags and meta descriptions of each page. Also ensure that the density of keywords in the content of your website is proper. A professional SEO services company can help you in the selection of keywords for website optimization. Your SEO services company can also help you integrate keywords in your website and content.

• Relevant Back Links

Back links from relevant websites are an important factor for website optimization. Getting back links to your website ensures the search engines that other websites trust you enough to exchange their links with yours. However, search engines only consider back links from relevant websites valid. So while exchanging links for website optimization, ensure that the website is relevant and connected in some way to your business website. Select a SEO services company which offers offer link building services as part of its SEO packages, so that you can increase the number of back links to your website.

There are other aspects of website optimization which a professional SEO services company can help you out with. However, you should be aware of the above-mentioned aspects of website optimization.

Does your website optimization plan include Bing?

Bing is fast gaining ground in the search engine industry, which is dominated majorly by Google. Bing calls itself the ‘decision engine’, as it claims to help users make decisions based on its search results. Like popular search engines Google and Yahoo, Bing searches, indexes and displays relevant information for users. Because of the buzz around Bing, many website optimization companies now offer SEO services for Bing specifically.

SEO companies as well as many small business owners are still looking for the right website optimization strategies for Bing, as it is a relatively search engine. Small businesses seeking SEO services are asking whether website optimization for Bing is any different than that for Google and Yahoo and whether they need to do anything differently for Bing. Experts in the field are of the opinion that website optimization for Bing doesn’t require anything radically different from the accepted White Hat SEO techniques. However, it will be useful to keep the following website optimization techniques in mind for Bing.

Interesting and Fresh Content
Like Google, Yahoo and other search engines, Bing, too, gives utmost importance to relevant and new content. Some search engine optimization experts suggest that web pages be loaded with text, as Bing prefers text. Take this factor in consideration when planning for website optimization for Bing. Some SEO companies also offer content writing as part of their SEO package, so you need not worry about content creation.

Age of your Domain
The older your domain, the better it is, when it comes to website optimization for Bing. The new search engine will give more importance to your website and rank it well in search results if the domain has been established some years ago. In case you are thinking of buying an older domain, talk to your SEO service provider; he/she can help you out.

Linking Exchange
Link exchange with relevant websites helps your Bing ranking. If your website has relevant incoming links, Bing will assume that your website is a trusted one, which says a lot of your website’s reputation. So while undertaking website optimization for Bing, give proper importance to relevant link exchange. Most SEO companies offer link exchange as part of the SEO services package, which will ultimately improve your website ranking in Bing.

On-Page SEO
Nothing beats the basics of search engine optimization: on-page and off-page SEO. Make sure that website optimization for your site includes on-page SEO techniques, which will help Bing cache and list your website better. Your SEO service provider should include your selected keywords in all the content of your site. Your web page title, meta tags and description should be unique, so that Bing knows what your site is about.

Your website optimization plan may already include popular search engines; however, using your SEO services for optimization for a newer search engine like Bing ensures that you cover all user demographics and popularize your website. There might be a huge part of your target audience on Bing, which you cannot afford to ignore.

Merry Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 is almost upon us! It's that time of the year when children wait for Santa Claus to bring them their gifts and adults look forward to the long holiday and the Christmas celebrations with friends and family.

Analytix Solutions wishes all its SEO services clients a Merry Christmas 2009.

Analytix brings an additional thing to cheer about this Christmas. Starting from today till 25th December, 2009, all SEO services packages will have a 10% off as part of a special Christmas offer. Get your website rankings up by availing of this special Christmas offer for your search engine optimization. Email sales@analytixsolutions.com for more details.

Make SEO Services Work For Your Small Business With This 5-Step Guideline

It is a given in today's marketing world that search engine optimization is of utmost importance for a business; the online audience is just too vast to ignore. SEO services are becoming a popular option for small businesses to tap into their online target audience. Search engine optimization is the most effective way to promote your business online if you are a small business owner. Once your website attains a good ranking in major search engines, you will be able to get exposure for your business to the millions of people who surf the web everyday and are looking for your products and services. The following is a 5-step guideline to make sure that SEO services work successfully for your business.

1. Assess your Situation

The first and foremost step for you should be to know where you stand in your search engine optimization campaign. What is your website's ranking for your main keywords? Is it user-friendly? Is the navigation easy enough? Does your content need a re-vamp so that major keywords are covered? What about on-site and offsite website optimization? If you are already using a SEO company, you can have detailed discussions about your questions with it. When you know the answers to these questions, it will become easier to utilize SEO services to your advantage or make the necessary changes accordingly.

2. Plan for SEO Services

You will not be able to determine which SEO services are required for your small business if you don't plan your search engine optimization campaign properly. You need to have a vision of what you want to achieve through the SEO services you use. This SEO planning also includes figuring out what kind of audience you want to tap into and the online mediums through which you can make a good impression on them. For example, if you are planning to target women entrepreneurs, you can develop a blog or forum which concentrates on issues related to them as part of the SEO services you avail of. This will give you a strong medium to interact with potential clients.

3. Look for Resources

In addition to SEO services, additional resources can also help in a search engine optimization campaign. Search for additional resources from around you like a content specialist who can help you maintain qualitative content on your website or a web designer who can help you improve the navigation of your website, if required. An SEO company may also offer content writing services which will help you change the content of your website or maintain blogs and forums. Although these are not included in basic SEO services, they are add-ons that help boost the visibility of your website.

4. Promotion

Don't forget to promote your website whenever possible. As such, your SEO company will take care of online promotion of your website. Ask the SEO company concerned whether link building and blogs are included in the SEO services you are signing up for. As a business owner, you can also promote your website in all your communications like emails, business cards and stationery, so that at least the people you come in contact with know about it and can access it with ease.

5. Evaluate the Results

There are various tools and softwares available today, which will help you analyze the results of the SEO services you have used. At this stage, you can see the result of all the search engine optimization activities undertaken by your SEO company. You can also change strategies after seeing the SEO result in case you feel a change will be better for future SEO activities.

Search engine optimization is not as complicated a procedure as you would think in the first instance. Taking the help of an experienced SEO company and signing up for the right SEO services will give your small business the advantage it needs to get the attention of your online target audience.

Hire A SEO Company To Make Your Business Website SEO And Social Media Friendly

If your business website is not found on the search engine results, you are liable to lose out on a lot of revenue simply because there are a large number of people looking for your products and services online. Not being searchable means that customers cannot find you and hence cannot buy from you. In such a scenario, it is important to not only make your website SEO friendly, but also to integrate various social media tools into it for greater benefit. A professional and experienced SEO company can help you make your website SEO and social media friendly, which will give important visibility to your website and ultimately to your business.

Search engine optimization is an evolving field and it is now not enough to use simple SEO tactics. Social media is coming of age and is becoming a major tool in helping people find the websites they are looking for. It is hence important to make a website social media friendly as well, so that people can find your website on a real time basis and recommend it if they like it.

'Search engine friendly' simply means making a website that is easy for the search engines to find and index for search rankings. A SEO friendly website makes it easier for search engines to give better search results as well as helps organizations make their products and services available to people looking for them. In addition to optimizing the site, making it social media friendly is recommended by SEO experts, as it is the newest medium of informal marketing today. Both these tasks can be completed easily by hiring a SEO company which is skilled in the tricks of the trade.

A SEO company makes a website SEO and social media friendly in the following ways:

• Content
  

The content on the website is very useful for making the site both SEO and social media friendly. Fresh and new content is always appreciated by both search engines and users. A professional SEO company optimizes the content for popular keywords and maintains its density so that search rankings can improve. If the website is updated with fresh and unique content, it will become popular amongst visitors seeking fresh, new and relevant information. This content, when popularized through social media like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Flickr, Digg etc. can make the website very popular amongst users. Many SEO companies offer content writing services which can be availed of by business organizations.



• On site
  

A SEO company uses many on site tools to make a website SEO and social media friendly. An SEO firm optimizes keywords, adds new web pages, makes internal and external linking etc. which helps improve search rankings for the website. For making the website social media friendly, SEO companies add tools like blog links, RSS feeds, forums etc. to the website so that visitors can interact with the company and recommend products/services/offers that they like.



• Off site
  

Off site tools used would include bookmarking, link exchanges, directory postings etc. which are used by SEO companies for search engine optimization.Such promotions help the search engine crawlers find the website easily. Some SEO companies maintain multiple blogs for clients for maximum exposure and popularity.

Using the services of a SEO company can make your company search engine friendly and findable on the search results. Hiring a SEO company for making your website SEO friendly and social media friendly is the best bet for making your website visible and popular amongst users.

3 SEO Services that your Business Can’t Afford to Miss

Millions of people use the internet everyday to search for your products or services. Search engine optimization of your website ensures that your products and services are easily searchable by potential customers. SEO guarantees the visibility that is needed to bring your company's product and services to the attention of customers. After all, if your customers can't find you online, how will they buy from you? However, Search Engine Optimization is a complex process which takes a lot of time and dedication to learn. If you need to give your complete attention to your business and do not have the time to learn the entire SEO process, you would do well by hiring a SEO company providing professional SEO services.

Even after making the decision to hire a pro, your role is not over. Many SEO companies offer SEO services at dirt cheap rates. Don't be misguided by such prices; such companies may just cover directory submission or link building as their main SEO service. Steer clear of such SEO consultant and look for an experienced and reputed SEO company. Your website needs a search marketing partner rather than just an optimization company. Partnering with an experienced company is a sure-shot way of making your SEO project a success.

Mentioned below are the 3 main SEO services that you need to ensure your SEO company provides for your business website:

Keyword Research
This is a crucial part of your website optimization process. The company providing SEO services will know how to research thoroughly regarding the keywords associated with your company, products and services. Ask your SEO company to research on the keywords commonly used within your industry, either by your customers or by competitors. Only after such research can the SEO company start on the optimization of your website. Keyword research is not a simple task and a lot of time and effort goes into it. Once the appropriate keywords are decided upon, a compelling copy including those keywords needs to be written so that your website can be found by search engines. Check with your SEO company on whether it offers content writing services which include your primary keywords. Allow only a search optimized content pro to write a highly keyword-optimized content for you.

Website Upgrade
You may have had your website designed by an expert web design company but your website also needs to be checked by your SEO company. Your SEO services should include in-depth analysis of your website by SEO experts so that search engine optimization tools and techniques can be used at the site's backend. Your website may need to be upgraded with new pages or sub-domains with the objective to improve search rankings.

Search Engine Rankings Reports - Keyword rankings and Website traffic report
Increasing your search engine rankings to get targeted traffic is, of course, the main reason for you to hire services of a SEO company. Make sure that your SEO consultant not only helps you with notching up your rankings but also with bringing in targeted traffic to your website. Some companies promise traffic but only end up getting spam traffic which is useless for your business. Make your goal clear to your SEO company and ask for keywords rankings update along with a website traffic report which will help you assess your websites SEO performance.

In addition to the above 3 SEO services, you should also make sure that your SEO company doesn't utilize any underhand methods to increase your search rankings. Black Hat SEO techniques may not only get your site penalized, they might also result in your site being banned from the search engines.

Increasing the online visibility of your website is easy, once you hire an expert SEO company and utilize the 3 main SEO services mentioned above.

5 Search Engine Optimization Myths

Despite the rising importance of search engine optimization for higher search rankings and increased targeted web traffic on your website, one finds many prevalent myths about SEO. If you are looking to hire a SEO consultant, being aware such myths will help you make an informed decision. Mentioned below are the most prominent myths related to search engine optimization:

Myth # 1 - Reputed SEO Consultants Can Guarantee # 1 Search Ranking

Let’s put this on record: No SEO consultant or company can guarantee # 1 ranking in any of the search engines. This is because the search engine algorithms are constantly changing and companies like Google and Yahoo also frequently change the techniques for rankings. The SEO consultant does not have any direct control over the results of the search engines and therefore the only thing he can do is update your site according to the constantly changing search algorithms. No one besides the search engine companies themselves can claim to know the complete algorithm; guarantees for # 1 position are hence impossible to give. Instead of looking for a guaranteed # 1 position, you should concentrate on search engine optimization for your website in the best possible way. Hiring an experienced SEO consultant, however, can improve your website ranking considerably. Checking out the previous projects of the SEO consultant may help you select the right one.

Myth # 2 - Only the Home Page needs to be optimized for Good Search Rankings

Many business owners believe that if they write keyword-optimized content for only their home page, their work is done. This is a big mistake for website optimization. In any search engine optimization campaign, each page of your website needs to be optimized for their respective keywords. Search engine crawlers or robots are likely to visit any page of your website randomly. Experienced SEO consultants will advise you that if all pages of your website are keyword-optimized, your search ranking will get a huge boost.

Myth # 3 - In-house SEO is Cheaper than a SEO Consultant

In-house SEO experts are actually a costlier option to hiring a SEO consultant. A company providing SEO services has a whole team to dedicate to your project. Rather than spend space, time and money on hiring one in house SEO help, a SEO consultant is cost-effective, efficient and experienced to handle all your search engine optimization requirements.

Myth # 4 - Once Top Search Rank is Achieved, Search Engine Optimization Can be Stopped

Search engine optimization is not a one-time process; it’s an ongoing one. Once top search ranking is achieved, time and effort should be spent to retain that ranking. There are thousands of websites competing for top ranking in major search engines and if you stop search engine optimization, they may overtake your website ranking. Your organic SEO efforts should also be bolstered through additional efforts like blogs, articles and newsletters and paid means like Pay Per Click etc.

Myth # 5 - PPC is More Effective than Organic SEO

If your search engine optimization is for a short period, say one to four months, Pay Per Click is a good option for you. However, if you want high visibility for a longer term than that, organic SEO is the way to go. Also remember that web users have long ago figured out the difference between sponsored ads and organic results. They trust organic searches and find them more useful for relevant content. So organic SEO efforts should never be replaced with paid means; they are the best way to grab the attention of users.

Having put all these SEO myths to rest will hopefully have cleared some of your doubts. If you are aware of these facts while hiring an SEO consultant, you will be able to hire the most suitable one and get ahead with your search engine optimization campaign.

Promote your Website with SEO and Social Media Marketing in 5 Easy Steps

If you’re an established setup or a startup company heavily dependent on your website and internet marketing to sell your product/services, you need to pay close attention to search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing. Both can be a crucial factor in the success of your business. When combined with social media marketing, SEO can create a strong online presence and can attract loads of targeted traffic towards your website.

Social media marketing, till a very short time ago, was a relatively unknown term. It has exploded on the online arena recently as a means to reach the millions of prospective customers who look for information online. Youtube, Twitter, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. are becoming popular means of social media marketing for businesses. Some time ago, we covered the topic of using social media marketing as a tool to reach target customers. Some of the highlights from that post were:

• The concept of Social Media Marketing has exploded into the business scenario recently as the best way to communicate with target audience as well as for Search Engine Optimization. It is the most popular concept in vogue for internet marketing today.
  
  
• Compared to the millions of consumers businesses can reach through the internet, traditional marketing methods can only reach a limited number of people.
  
  
• Today companies, in addition to website optimization and SEO, are embracing social media marketing to reach its consumers.

Let us now move on to the 5 steps through which you can get great traffic to your website.

Drive Traffic to your Website through Search Engine Optimization

Once you have designed and developed your website, it is important to make it visible to the online users. In addition to having great products and services, you will need Search Engine Optimization to popularize your website. One simple tactic for starting SEO for your website is having a keyword-rich domain and integrating those keywords in the titles of your web pages. All you have to do then is to use the primary keyword and keyword phrases in the content you put up on your website. If your content is new and interesting and has a decent keyword density, the search engines will find you. After you optimize your website, you can consider other options like link building and paid forms of advertising like Pay Per Clicks etc. If taking care of all these details sounds tedious, you can hire a SEO expert.

Blog about Subjects Close to you

Blogs have become the informal way of connecting with the customers for many companies. They serve the dual purpose of making the company visible online as well as scoring points with the customers. Setting up your own blog is a simple and free process. You can get your own blog set up and ready for posts in three clicks on blogger.com, a site owner by Google. Updating a blog frequently and consistently with interesting information can help you interact with customers and gain a valuable insight to their likes and dislikes. With this feedback, you can improve your products or services in accordance to the taste of the customers. Optimize your blog posts a little for search engine optimization and voila, your blog will assist you in not only online community building but also driving valuable web traffic to your site.

Use the Social Media Network

As said before, social media marketing is the emerging trend to reach out to customers of all types. With millions of users hooked on to social media sites such as Youtube, Twitter, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. these websites are a great way to make your own network of dedicated followers. Create an attractive profile on one of these websites and keep friends, family and business associates updated on what’s happening in your business. Links of your business website on these profiles will also help in Search Engine Optimization for your website.

Make your Network and be Helpful

Just making your profile and posting updates is not enough to popularize your business on the social media network. You need to interact with other users, ask questions, and in some cases, answer them. Such interaction will give you crucial feedback which can be integrated into your business. Only if you give users some useful information and be helpful to them will they be interested in what is happening with you.

Keep Updating your Website with New Features

Lastly, keep updating your website with unique features which will interest the users so that they keep coming back to use them. Regularly updating your website also helps with search engine optimization and helps better search ranking of your website.

These 5 steps of search engine optimization and social media marketing will help you create a strong web presence and impression on your potential customers. But it is also important to remember the basics: people want great products or services for reasonable prices from a knowledgeable and trustworthy vendor. Having an ideal combination of these factors is a sure-shot way to success.

Use Social Media Marketing to Improve your SEO Ranking

Do you know that some of the biggest companies are asking their marketing departments to spend more time on websites like LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Facebook etc? If the statistics of 2008 are to be believed, the online social media commands the highest time and attention of youngsters today. The young generation loves it as it is an innovative way to connect and communicate with people all around the world. People’s social as well as professional communication is undertaking a change as they discuss everything from Oscars to Obama on websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. Social media is hence a new category of internet which is a huge crowd-puller. Brand marketers use it as a source for targeted marketing to put across their messages, get feedback on their brand and sales promotion campaigns.

The concept of Social Media Marketing has exploded into the business scenario as the best way to communicate with target audience as well as for Search Engine Optimization. It is the most popular concept in vogue for internet marketing today. With even the smallest businesses going online and tech savvy for a better reach to their consumers, this is hardly surprising. Compared to the millions of consumers businesses can reach through the internet, traditional marketing methods can only reach a limited number of people. Companies, in and SEO, are embracing social media marketing to reach its consumers.

What Social Media Marketing is…

The term “social media” is given to the collection of online mediums through which users communicate on issues they are interested in. The most popular social media are said to be websites like LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Facebook etc. These websites have forums created and maintained by users, rather than the company itself or its employees. Social media marketing is a way of utilizing this vast network of social media for marketing purposes. Initially used as a tool for interaction, social media is now looked upon as a medium by businessmen to get their message across to their target consumers. Also known as “social internet marketing”, “social network marketing” and “social marketing”, this concept is becoming a preferred tool for businessmen looking for publicity. In essence, social media marketing combines the word-of-mouth publicity with the millions of internet users. It is used for various purposes like increasing online presence, inbound linking, brand awareness and positive feedback from consumers.

How it Works…

Social media is based on conversations between people of the things they like, with recommendations being passed along if they come across anything interesting. If you have a blog with regular postings of interesting topics, you can promote them on social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Facebook etc. If users like your blog, they will pass it along to friends. This way, the information about your company gets passed along by users who like it, to people in their contact. There is a level of trust established between the two users, hence when one recommends your blog to another, it works better than any advertisement ever can.

But your work is not limited only to submitting your blog. After submitting your post at these social bookmarking sites, you need to interact with users with similar interests as yours. You can start building a network by checking out other posts, commenting on them and interacting with the person who has posted that blog. It would be a mistake if you keep on submitting your blog post and expect others to find it. By popularizing your blog this way, you can get inbound links as well as brand awareness for your business. The inbound links, in turn, will also improve your SEO ranking through organic SEO. In addition to blogs, you can also give links to interesting websites and updated information on various issues.

The key to making social media marketing work is generating interest in the content or topic being covered. Quality content is always stressed on, but it plays a vital role in the success or failure of a social media marketing campaign. Users browsing the social bookmarking sites are looking for innovative, new and interesting content, which they then will pass on to their friends. If the content on your blog is uninteresting or old, it will not spread to other users, and they will eventually stop following your blog.

Who Can Use SMM…

Not only large business houses with a pool of resources to dedicate to marketing, but smaller businesses are also starting to use social media as a marketing tool. We hence hear of food vans using Twitter to let followers know which area they will be touring this month, while established banks and others have introduced interactive blogs to let users know of its history. Any business with an internet connection can utilize SMM for business development. It is a better option to putting up ads online and is better accepted due to the creditability of recommendations made by known people.

A Word of Caution…

The message that you want to convey to people in the social media is not controlled by you, but by the users. People are just as likely to complain about a lousy product as recommend it if it was good. It has to be a 2-way interaction, with you giving out useful information in order to get a positive feedback. If the delicately-balanced trust of the users is shattered, they might spam you out of their circle or give you negative feedback.

Social media marketing is a tough concept and requires a lot of time and effort to become successful. It takes time and commitment to develop contacts, trust and respect with the online community and the results are obtained in a long term. If you don’t have the time to put into social media marketing, you can hire an SEO expert or SEO consultant to maintain your online presence through social media marketing.

Are search rankings dependent on your site content?

Ask experts about elements of search engine optimization and each will give different criteria for their SEO campaigns. But whether for an SEO consultant or a businessman content tops the list of highly important criteria for SEO and greater rankings. It’s true: content plays a vital role in improving your search engine ranking. The sole purpose of your SEO campaign is to improve search engine ranking, and without optimized content, you will be unable to achieve it.
Most SEO service providers today give a lot of importance to optimizing content along with developing SEO strategies. However, content for your website is not only limited to what a reader comes across on your webpage; it also includes the articles, blogs, promotional material as well as press releases. All these combined together affect your search engine rankings.
The following are 4 key points to optimize your content:

Keyword-Rich Content

Your website contains the most important content influencing your search engine ranking. It should hence be written with care to include keywords relevant to your products and services. Your other content-based material like blogs, press releases and articles should also contain an ideal amount of keywords in order to be picked up by the search engines. The keyword density in all these materials should be such that the crawlers of the search engines pick them up as relevant material when a reader searches for those particular keywords. These keywords should also be used in prominent places such as titles and be evenly distributed throughout the content. Only then will your SEO campaign become a success. A note of warning though: do not use your keywords so many times that the crawlers spam your material.

Meta tag Descriptions for Web Pages

Optimizing the title and description of the web pages in Meta tags also goes a long way in getting them picked up by search engines. Your Meta tag description should be rich in keywords and give a fair idea of the content on the web page. If there is a poor description or they do not contain targeted keywords, Meta tags can bring down search engine rankings.

Link Building through Content

If your content is interesting and updated, it will become a means to link building with other websites. Users will also become regular visitors to your website for informative content on your website. Also, when you exchange links with other websites, be sure to give the link text description proper attention; it will help readers know what the destination page will be all about. Making the link text with keywords or key phrases would be a good idea for search engine optimization.

Interesting subjects of the content

Make your content as different and informative as possible. Internet users today are bombarded with the same type of information from hundreds of sites. They will explore only when they see some innovative concept on your website or blog. In order to make the user come to your site or read your article or blog, give it an appealing title. Only if the reader finds the start interesting will he continue to read the rest of it. Such content increases the incoming traffic of the website as well as improves the trustworthiness of the site, which ultimately results in high SEO ranking.

Your 4-point checklist before hiring an SEO Expert

Everybody is talking about the recession around but nobody has a clue as to when it will improve so we can get a clear outlook. As a business owner you must be wondering if you will be able to slug it out this year. There are two situations here: you have to continue bringing in new business in order to survive and on the other hand, you have fewer resources to dedicate to it. Hence, bringing in the right kind of business is critical. If you are thinking of going for Search Engine Optimization for your website, you need to consider many factors when you select the SEO Service Provider. This is because of the fact that there are many SEO experts in the market, and you need to find the one that suits your requirements the most. Consider the following 4-point checklist which will decide the amount you will spend on your optimization campaign:

Design of your current site

Here’s the deal: if you have a site which was made some 8-10 years ago at a cheap rate and there have been no updates since then, the search engines are not going to be interested in it. You should have been constantly updating it with keywords and SEO-friendly features besides undertaking some high volume search promotion to obtain a good ranking with the search engines. This is in case you didn’t get the job done properly the first time, and the SEO services provider will have to work doubly hard to improve your current site. In case your site architecture is built well, it will cost you lesser to get your job done.

Experience of the SEO Consultant/firm

There are SEO services available at $15/hour, and there are those that charge $200/hour. If your SEO consultant has a lot of experience behind it, it is bound to believe it is worth a better price per hour than somebody who has started off. You need to judge which skill set you want working at your SEO campaign, and decide you budget for SEO accordingly.

Services Opted for

There are many services offered by a SEO consultant, and you need to decide which out of those the requirements of your business are. The more number of services you subscribe for, the higher your cost is going to be. In order to judge which services you require, you will need to have an in-depth knowledge of your business, its drawbacks and the areas that require improvement.

Keywords

It’s simple: if you opt for a few keywords, the charge will be less, whereas if you opt for hundreds of them, you will be charged more. Time taken to optimize many keywords will be more, hence you will be charged more. But always insist for organic optimization so that your site continues to show results even if your SEO term is over with your consultant...

Are you a reasonable SEO client?

There is lots of confusion when it comes to what should you expect from your search engine optimization program. Generally clients are disillusioned and dissatisfied when they have overblown expectations while hiring SEO services. This could happen when either the SEO Vendor has misrepresented what services they will offer in order to close the deal faster or when the clients are themselves not sure what goals they aim to achieve from their SEO exercise.

Understanding what reasonable expectations to have as an SEO client will help to resolve many such conflicts. Read below the factors that should be strictly considered in order to be termed as a reasonable or an understanding SEO client:

Increase in rankings: This is the basic result for every SEO plan. You need to select the relevant keywords you want top rankings and ask your SEO consultant to start cranking to bring it to top. But remember to check whether you chosen keywords are too highly competitive. If so, results will be slow in trickling down. If your site is brand new, again you need to give reasonable time to your SEO vendor. Ask your SEO expert to provide a basic research report on your sites current state, competition for your keywords and industry scenario before mapping out how soon you want to get that top 10 rankings.
Increase in traffic: This is another result which as a client you are justified to expect. The point to remember here is obsession with traffic can blindfold you to the real target. Increasing traffic with no noticeable change in output is useless. Emphasize on quality rather than quantity. Tell your vendor what type of traffic you want to visit your site and what action you expect those visiting your site to take. Be very explicit and clear in your goals from visitor. You can judge this by understanding the visitors surfing trends and the amount of time spent on your site.

Increase in conversion rate: This is most desirable result client should expect when hiring an expert SEO. Be sure to define how you measure conversion. Is it conversion when visitor fills your contact us form or inquiry form or is it when they subscribe to your newsletter or email or when they fill membership form or when they buy from your online portal? Define what conversion is for you and be sure you are on the same page with your SEO specialist when explaining this.

Increase in ROI: Last but not the least you can only continue with your SEO project if the return on investment is more than the cost. Every investment needs time to start giving returns. Be sure to give your SEO pro the time they need to get the program up and running.

SEO is gaining tremendous importance and scope with the current market crisis that has forced a lot of businesses to slash down their marketing budgets. SEO is a great alternative as it is quite cheap compared to spending large amount of dollars on advertising. The results are measurable compared to traditional marketing. But like any other marketing activity, remember to make relationship as a center of focus. You need to give support, co-operation and help required by your SEO vendors to help you get what you want. SEO plans fail when a client gets unreasonable, demands too much too soon, does not follow the changes recommended by SEO pro and pulls out too quickly before results can begin flowing.

How do I search your website? SEO Rules you cannot ignore.

Recently I was searching one of my friend’s Website on virtual consultancy service. I knew she had a site, but could not remember the web address nor could find her business card anywhere. All I had was her name. So I thought of searching Google for her website basis her name. Result = Nada! Determined to find her website, I searched basis ‘virtual consultant Boston’ & ‘virtual consultancy services Boston’. Again I could not find her business. Well if you are in the consultancy business, I think it’s kinda obvious that your name should link back to your website. Search keywords describing your service for the respective geographic area such as “virtual consultancy services Boston” should also shoot results of your website. But here nothing of the sort was happening. I finally had to go through all my old emails and find her contact information. Upon speaking to her, I pointed out how difficult it was searching for her business website online. To which she replied in not so many words “Well, my Web designer said that people have to pay to be on the top and I don’t really want to pay for that.”

I was baffled. So as per what her designer said, you can only be found, if someone knows your name or your business name? But cannot be found if someone is searching for a virtual consultant in Boston? Sounds ridiculous! Well as a small business owner you need to immediately wake up and smell the coffee! People who go online to search are generally looking for answers to their problems. Most won’t know your name or your business name. How do you ensure they find you before you competitor?


Organic Search Engine Optimization does not require you to pay the search engine owners to bring your site to the top rankings. What organic SEO does, is makes your website more search crawler/robot friendly and follows the white hat ethical SEO rules laid down by top search engines. Generally good search sites like Google keeps updating its algorithm to improve search results and a good SEO firm will update and follow such guidelines accordingly.

Some basic must-dos to make your website SEO friendly:

• Ensure your website coding is clean. Remove extra CSS and Javascript. Get your site W3C (www.w3c.org) validated to make it search friendly. There are 100% validated websites out there, so trust me it can be done!
  
  
• Spend some time right at the onset to do a thorough keyword research. Believe me this is the basic ABC of SEO. Look for keywords in programs like Keyword Discovery, Overture, WordTracker and website logs. You should know which keywords; users will use to do a search for you. Like I typed ‘virtual consultant Boston’ to search for my client’s website.
  
  
• Now that you know which keywords to optimize write your content them. Ensure to write SEO friendly content. Use 2 or max 3 keywords phrases per webpage. Don’t confuse the search crawler by using too many different types of keywords and diluting all. To understand more about keywords read my previous post about The Tango between Keywords & Search Engine Crawlers Part I & Part II
  
  
• Make sure to include the keyword phrase in the title, the alt tags, and the body of content. Bold it; use it in links, in H1 tags
  
  
• Start building relevant incoming links to your website. This is part of organic SEO, and ensures more number of relevant linking to your site, will make your site more popular with search bots. You can do this via article posting, forums, blogs, reciprocal linking, directory submissions etc. All this is very time consuming and tedious, but essential for your long term Search Engine Optimization strategy. Above all be patient. It takes time but following the above basic steps will work in winning the war and being found online.

Go and type your site’s preferred keywords on search engine. Can you find your business in the top 10 listings…. Nope? Then you definitely need to pull up your socks and take SEO help from experts.

Write to me at mark@analytixsolutions.net to discuss any further questions you might have about how to get your website SEO done.

How SEO can help you combat recession?

There is a severe economic downturn which cannot be denied. As small business owner it is very essential to be totally prepared to hold the fort and ride this downturn with effective strategies for survival and growth.

Besides following the commonly given away practical advises such as decreasing your debt, decreasing your expenses; increasing your savings and practicing frugality in your business and personal life I would advise to capitalize from your existing customers and convert maximum of prospects into customers. They can definitely ensure your survival. If you’re running a traditional set-up with not much of technology put to use, you surely need to open up that client directory you used to maintain few years back and start calling up them and promote your services with some healthy discounts.

If you own a good website, you should surely launch some good promotional offers that can help convert your prospects into business. You would also need a good marketing plan as whatever your blowout offer may be; it’s no use if you do not have sufficient website visitors to read about it.

Check out for Search Engine Optimization program. It’s the right antidote needed to get your internet marketing done within a small web marketing budget.

If you plan to pop-up any further question SEO related questions for me, like how, why, what, when, etc. here’s few further facts from me:

• With SEO, you can get your website placed on top rankings of major search engines. This gives your website better visibility, more number of visitors and an extended chance to reach out to your prospects before your competitors.
  
  
• SEO will help to turn your website into an online shop by increasing traffic and improving conversion rate. Hiring a professional SEO expert can deliver good results.
  
  
• Organic SEO is free of cost and delivers results for a longer period of time compared to any pay-per-click advertising options. Hire a SEO consultant to kick-off your organic SEO program and save on cost and time.
  
  
• Organic SEO is no rocket-science and you can find tons of net materials on do-it-yourself SEO practices. It’s not difficult to begin with, but the only constraint is that they take up lot of time. A SEO pro can in-turn help you save this time and even bring on board all the experiential tips and tricks that drive faster results compared to trial-and-error methods.

Internet marketing offers many avenues to know and reach your targeted customer instead of waiting for them to come to you. Be active, be found and make marketing the center of your activities to survive the recession besides following the conventional precautions.

How is ‘WHITE HAT’ SEO different from ‘BLACK HAT’ SEO?

An organic SEO is used as a blanket term to describe the unpaid, algorithm-driven results of any particular search engine. However expert search engine optimization (SEO) company does not limit organic SEO to what shows up in the “natural” search engine results- they devise strategies and methodologies on how they would go about achieving such rankings.

Usually a SEO service company falls in either of these 2 categories:

• A "White Hat" search engine optimization company will focus on largely content-based approach and will not violate the terms of service of the major search engines. They are the people who carry some patience along with a concrete plan. They look at the long term picture and help develop a stronger base for the Website. White Hat SEO never needs to fear on getting the Website unduly banned by Search Engines as it’s all about ethically practicing the most recommended guidelines of Search Engines.
  
  
• A "Black Hat" search engine optimization company will use all underhanded tricks and tactics to ensure that they can show results within a short time. They often ignore the terms of service of the major search engines. The elevation of search rankings would often seem faked. So never go by those who guarantee you results in short time, as that’s a short term approach that can get your Website banned on all Search Engines.

How do these firms operate?

• Learning from engines vs. exploiting them
  
  A white hat SEO firm looks at long term goals and studies how search engine crawlers ranks some site higher than the others for a searched keyword. After understanding the rules they incorporate those in the site to be optimized. They work within the rules and since these rules have been made by search engines after studying optimizing search results to provide as close a result to what users are trying to search for. This is a longer route and takes time to set up. Whereas a black hat SEO firm only cares enough about rules to break it. They find loopholes in the algorithms set by search engines to fool them into ranking the site high. The problem here is even though your site is highly ranked initially, if the visitors don’t find what they want on your site, the entire purpose behind SEO fails. Once search engine catches black hat tactics the risk of temporary or permanent barring of site is high.
  
  
• Being an industry resource vs. being a shameless snake oil salesperson
  
  Another major difference in approach of white hat and black hat SEO firms is their approach to content. A white hat SEO organization will emphasize on a website that provides rich SEO content writing that can prove useful while browsing the site along with being a resource within their industry. Whereas the focus of a black hat operator would be ruthless use of keywords to thrust your product and services down the throat of a visitor along with wooing the search engine crawlers to give higher rankings by useless repetitions of chosen keywords. Such an approach will ultimately bomb down since the algorithms of search engine crawlers are updated regularly to avoid misuse through such technical loopholes.
  
  
• Attracting links vs. buying them
  
  Other difference is towards link building approach which is heavily relied upon for organic SEO. White hat service providers will always research and try to find what the major industry websites, forums, communities, discussion boards and blogs etc look for in a firm’s website to link to your site and built up incoming links. Whereas the black hat operators will buy links, farm links, indulge in reciprocal link schemes without focusing on enriching the site for long term benefits.

Internet Marketing Terms for Newbies - I

Internet marketing is peppered with its unique lingo and terminologies which can leave a new entrant baffled. Below are list of few important terms with brief explanation which can prove as a useful tool to understand Internet Marketing:

1. Above the fold: The section of a Web page that is visible without scrolling.
2. A-list bloggers: A-listers are all those writers who dominate the Technorati rankings. Getting a nod from one of such an authority can mean exponential growth in site traffic.
3. Affiliate marketing: To sell your product through other web sites or e-mail lists by paying the site or list owner for such sales. It is basically revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople, whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model.
4. Blog: Short for ‘web log’. It basically means posting (generally in reverse chronological order) short entries which can be personal or business related and allows visitors to post comment which is not usually possible on a website.
5. Banner ad: A horizontal graphical web advertisement that is measured in pixels.
6. Button ad: A graphical advertising unit, smaller than a banner ad.
7. Caching: The storage of Web files for later re-use at a point more quickly accessed by the end user.
8. Conversion rate: The number of sales, leads or other desired actions that occur on your web site, compared to the total number of visitors.
9. Cost-per-action (CPA): Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.
10. Cost per click (CPC): The cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through.
11. CPM: Cost per thousand impressions.
12. Customer acquisition cost: The cost associated with acquiring a new customer.
13. Domain name: The address of your web site, e.g. 'http://www.analytixsolutions.com/'.



14. Doorway domain: A domain used specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main domain.
15. Doorway page: A web page made specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main content.
16. Dynamic web site: A web site generated using a web application and a database. These sites will often change from one visit to the next, or one moment to the next.
17. Ezine: An electronic magazine, whether delivered via a Web site or an email newsletter.
18. Flash: An animation and interactive platform which allows very complex movement on a page. Generally used to distribute videos. YouTube uses Flash to distribute all video on the site. Completely flash based web sites are not advisable due to low search rankings.
19. Forum: An online community where visitors may read and post topics of common interest.
20. Frames: A structure that allows for the dividing of a Web page into two or more independent parts.

There are few more to go which will be shown in the next post.

Do you need an SEO specialist?

Analytix Solutions based in MA, provides superior SEO services for your Website promotion and marketing. Our SEO pro can boost your Website rankings on all major search engines to top positions for your preferred keywords. Email us on mark@analytixsolutions.net to qualify for a free SEO analysis of your site.

Our SEO consultants help those who are looking to hire SEO services to help achieve Top Search Rankings. The Organic SEO Services provided by them includes SEO Copywriting and SEO Link Building for your Website Promotion along with other SEO Techniques. Analytix delivers affordable SEO and not purely cheap SEO Services for small and mid-sized businesses. We are an Ethical SEO Firm from Boston, servicing MA, NH, RI and other parts of New England.

Check out further about Analytix’s SEO expert tips on SEO blog which shares SEO tricks, SEO advices, SEO help and general information relating to SEO Website Marketing. Analytix’s SEO program can elevate your site to high search rankings for your preferred keywords through professional SEO campaigns.

Write to us at mark@analytixsolutions.net for further information.

The Tango between Keywords & Search Engine Crawlers –Part I

“SEO is the business of getting found, even if the users did not know that they were looking for you all along.“

The first basic step to any search engine optimization project is finding the right keywords. There are many misconceptions and confusions about the relation between search engine crawlers and keywords.

One of the common question is “How does a search engine recognize which word is the targeted keyword?” Those of you who believe that Google has a list of keywords provided to spiders that later come scavenging to your website hunting for it are wrong. Honestly folks, bots (i.e. Search engine crawlers or spiders) really cannot read in the literal sense. Crawlers don’t come to your website thinking “hey let me learn about SEO services today and let’s hope this website will give me all the information I need on SEO”. Crawlers can’t process information like humans. What they actually do is pick on patterns and flow of repetitive letters which forms a word in the text content of your website and selects one that’s repeated fairly often.

Let’s explain the above example of ‘SEO Services’ as a chosen keyword:
A search engine robot when crawls does not knows what a particular word is, but they observe which letters repeat most over and over and they file this information. This pattern might be complete gibberish, but patterns do stand out. A crawler skims and decides on keywords by filing the pattern shown below:

Text text text SEO services text text text
Text text SEO text text text text text Service
SEO Service text text text text text text text
Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text
Text Text Text SEO Text Text Text services

Upon further analysis the crawler can now filter the keywords from the rest of the text



Bingo! They now realize that ‘SEO Services’ is the keyword as it is repeated fairly often so it must mean something. Crawlers use this information to display your site for this particular keyword when searched by web users.

Next post will throw light on how many keywords should be optimized per page.

How to avoid damaging you GOOGLE SEARCH RANKINGS?

You will be flooded with tips and suggestions on how to optimize rankings on Google, but before embarking on Search Engine Optimization plan to improve your Google search rankings, be sure on what NOT to do.

• Excessive Keywords Placement:

Don’t go over-board with stuffing target phrases and keywords within your body text. Forceful stuffing of keywords everywhere just because you can do so is not going to improve rankings, in fact your content will look extremely silly and your rankings will deteriorate. Always employ a professional content writer who knows how to draft a smooth seamlessly flowing content naturally containing your targeted keywords without it coming across as amateurish or forced.

• Keyword Dilution:

Targeting too many unrelated keywords on a page might detract from main theme or objective of your website. It will confuse the search engine crawlers. It might also reduce the impact of your power (main) keywords which should be the main focus your efforts to improve your rankings. Be very careful during selection of relevant keywords to avoid costly mistakes.

• Duplication of Content:

Going over-board with duplicating content within the same page or pages and stealing content or images from other sites might land you in copyright violation and get your site banned. Be safe, be ethical! If you are eager to avoid duplication but are not sure of how you can confirm this for your website, simply put your URL details on www.copyscape.com that will provide the entire summary of content duplication instances done knowingly or unknowingly.

• Hidden Text:

Avoid short cut routes like placing hidden text which cannot be viewed by users. Hidden text are those which are hidden in invisible div layers or text on the same colored back ground (white text on a white background) or text located below the fold with vertical scrolling disabled. Whatever techniques adopted to insert such text, you can land in hot waters and it is definitely not recommended.

• Flash based websites:

Although flash websites are attractive eye-candies and will not land you into any trouble with search engine crawlers, it is still not going to do you any favors during search. Websites that are all flash have little or no content for search crawlers to scroll and digest thereby drastically reducing page rankings. If you still wish to go with the Flash theme, it is generally recommended to have dual versions, with HTML version for search engines to crawl and also for those visitors who might prefer HTML version while you can also keep your flash one. Also, double check that the flash files do not overweight the page size of your website leading to more downloads time.

• iFrames Site

iFrames has been banned by Google search engine crawlers as it cannot read the Frame content. Having a iFrame content is definitely going to do ‘no good’ for your site.

• Backdoor pages:

Creating multiple websites or pages with are nearly identical with slight differences in the content to try and fool Google in grabbing some rankings might seem easy but can again land your site into trouble. Such pages are created to go with pay per click campaigns, but can end up being detrimental if found out by Google. If your idea to creating multiple yet similar web pages is genuine and you want to avoid from being termed as back door pages, place a different content and have two way links function for those Web Pages.

• Cloaking:

The rule is very simple – NEVER EVER CLOAK. Cloaking is when you have a different content on display for search crawlers and a different one for human visitors. Google dislikes this and if caught your site is blacklisted.

Taking care of few simple rules while going ahead with your search optimization strategy can save you lot of heartburns later on. Always remember knowledge is power! So keep yourself constantly updated on Google rules and regulations for search and rankings.