SEO Essentials for 2012

            If you have built or created your own web site, you probably have somewhat of an understanding about how search engine optimization (SEO) works. Many proprietary websites do their own SEO while there are some that hire individuals, usually consultants, who are experts at doing search engine optimization. These individuals are effective at optimizing websites and understand the important areas of doing SEO and bring it all together into a search engine optimization campaign.

 

                  So what is so important about SEO? The main reason search engine optimization is used is to increase a websites visibility on the Web, so it receives more traffic. This in turn is what helps website designers and proprietors earn some extra cash. Now lets consider the various components of your website which are on-page and off-page content. On-page SEO is the optimization that is done on your actual website, which includes the code, meta data, and meta explanations. There are many strategies and methods that can be utilized to help your website become search engine friendly. You want search engines like Google and Bing to index and rank your web site properly, so the more effective your on-page optimization the easier it will be for search engines to crawl your pages and put them in appropriate groups for all those people you want to see your information. Ranking for the category that is most suitable requires that your site use key phrases for that category. These key phrases have to be enhanced on each page of your website for the best results. Likewise your site needs completely unique content to be able to be categorized as a signal of authority.

Next there is off-page optimization, which is the part that's done from an external site on the Internet. The purpose of off-page SEO is to improve the quantity of traffic your site receives, with a large part of that being link building. This is done naturally to a certain point, like when a person links to some site that's like using their own. So when that person has an Internet site that is highly rated, it may be able to provide extra traffic, as well as higher rank to your site. Another way to build links for your site is to post articles to article pages, such as an offer to improve optimization of a site, or other various techniques.

 

               Search engine optimization can be time consuming and intensive, especially the link-building part of it. When you are not a specialist, the involvement of doing the items needed for optimization of your site can seem overwhelming. You might not want to do everything you need to do for the greatest results. This is the main reason why many website proprietors have decided to leave SEO to the experts. We have the ability to begin a campaign that considers all of the important areas of optimization and can help you to obtain the top results.

Targeting Moderate Relevance Keywords in PPC

Much of the job of a search engine marketer is finding the perfect balance between competitiveness and value in keyphrase choice. Much has been said about utilizing the long tail (including by us here at FindYourSearch), and of course most SEO/SEM articles focus on how to rank for and profit from nearly any keywords, including those in high-competition, if you have the time and money and find them worthwhile in terms of return on investment. In PPC, in particular, it is usually accepted that highly targeted, highly relevant terms provide the best ROI. One article contends differently, however.

The basic premise is that, although some level of relevance is necessary (e.g. cat breeders shouldn’t market to people looking for roofing companies), sometimes a bit of cross-marketing can be profitable. For instance, a business just outside a city can profit by marketing to people looking for hotels within the city, as long as certain care is taken. The article outlines three steps.

First, separation of the ad campaigns is essential. Ads targeting the most relevant keywords should not be the same as those going for the less relevant. In fact, you should have a few campaigns of varying specificity going at any one time. This makes tracking much easier and allows you to properly refine the ad copy for the keywords being targeted.

Secondly, the messages of the ad campaigns need to cater to the audiences they target. Less relevant keywords need more qualification. If someone is searching “purebred puppy breeders” it’s impossible to know whether they want to buy puppies or simply research breeders, or what breed of puppy they’re looking for in what location. Therefore, an ad for a dog breeder selling Golden Retriever puppies in Las Vegas needs to specify all that information in the ad to ensure only qualified click-through.

The third and final key is persuasion. Since you are targeting people who are not directly searching for your product, you need to explain the reasons they should choose you. If you’re promoting a hotel just outside an area being searched for, you should express how easy it is to get to the area. That way, you weed out people unwilling to consider something nearby before they click your ad and cost you money.

As you can see, it’s important to be extremely careful with ads targeted for moderate relevance. When proper care is taken, however, it’s possible to get returns even for these terms.