By Francis Lua

Article submission is a must web marketing strategy if you are running an online business. There are tons of services available on the net that giving different services at certain rates. If you are intend to make your site improves in search engines and getting more popular then articles submission is a must have marketing strategies. Probably, many of you has been wondering what is the article directories actually?

Article directories are websites that act as a storage for free articles. These articles are usually put there by whoever owns the copyright to them as a promotion method. Each article has the owners byline placed under it so that those who eventually read the article will know who wrote it or at least who owns it and will be able to get in contact with or visit their website for further information.

Articles directories are a great place to put your articles so that they will make you money. By using this method, people who are interested in your product or service will see your article, view you as an expert in the subject, and will visit your website. Even if you cannot write or do not have any knowledge on the subject on which you are promoting for example for you run an affiliate website, you can always hire a writer to do the work for you.

Getting quality articles written will be expensive up front, but they will pay for themselves in no time, either through affiliate sales or selling your own services, and everything from then on is pure profit.

Lets take a real life example. Imagine that you are an accountant working from home. You write an article on an accounting topic and place it on various article directories. Those who are looking for the subject you wrote about will read your article, see that you have the knowledge and skill that is needed to do a job for them, and visit your website or contact you via email. Your article just gained you a new client who may use your services regularly, but will definitely give you a nice profit at least once.

Furthermore, since you have posted it on a free article directory, others who have affiliate websites about accounting will inevitably use your article for their website. Since they must attach your byline to it, this will bring you even more exposure for every website that re posts your article. This is because you will be benefiting of off the traffic that they get to their website.

Learn to use search engine optimization techniques when writing your articles. If hiring a writer to write articles for you, you can choose one who already knows about SEO or you can supply them with a list of keywords and let them know where they should be placed and how many times they should be repeated throughout the article. Optimizing your articles for search engines will help them rank higher when someone searches for a keyword relating to your subject, which means that you will receive more visitors because more people will actually see your URL.

It is a fact that most visitors do not look past the first search engine result page and by the third search engine results page there is practically no audience left for you to promote to. What this means for those on the third or high page is no traffic. This is why it is very important for you to make sure that your articles are prepared in a way that will eventually get them to that first or second search engine results page.

There are numerous article directories out there for you to utilize. Your bet best is to put a copy of each of your articles on every one for maximum exposure. It will eventually help to bring more traffic and customers to your website, which will lead to new orders and more profit.

But take note that to get the maximum results you will need a good quality articles that comes with search engine optimized keywords or contents. It is advisable to get a good copy writer to product the best articles.

Good SEO contents will push your website to a higher ranking that will drive you tons of organic traffic every month that will increase your website popularity and get you more sales. So, based on above web marketing tips, now you can see the importance of article submission as part of your web marketing strategy for your business.

About The Author

Web Solutions . Malaysia Website Design and Web Marketing Consultant.At i1WebSifu, we provide Superior Quality and World Class Website Design and Web Marketing Solutions for your business needs. Be it dazzling websites and portals or customized software solutions, our team is trained and ready to fulfill your every need. Visit
http://www.i1websifu.com

By Thomas Pretty

It is likely that nearly all conscientious business managers will have heard the term search engine optimisation bandied around when conversing about online strategies. The reason it is so often used is because it is a vital component in the success of an online business. SEO is simply the shortened term for search engine optimisation although an SEO is someone who conducts optimisation methods. Naturally these SEOs are experts in what they do and while there is a certain amount of work that can be undertaken as an amateur, having professional help is strongly advisable. The process of optimisation has the ultimate objective of improving the search engine listings for your website.

One of the most important parts of the optimisation process is to select a set of keywords that match your business operations or the products you sell. For instance, if you sell MP3 players then it is likely that this term will be a suitable keyword or phrase. However there is another important factor to remember when selecting keywords, the previous example, MP3 players would most likely be a suitable keyword if it were not for the fact that this term would have high levels of competition in search engine rankings. The higher the competition the more difficult it will be to top the rankings and hence the time spent achieving success will be greater.

Keywords should be included in both on and off page information if search engine rankings success is to be forthcoming. On page information is what the human user will see such as the content; that is, the written element of a web page. Off page information on the other hand is predominantly read by the search engine spiders and includes factors such as Meta tags, and title headers. By combing these two elements, results will become evident. As previously stated however, no matter how effectively you utilise keywords both on and off the page, there is no official timescale, results will appear but how long it will take requires some guesswork.

In terms of the content on your web page, optimisation strategies will emphasise the importance of high quality, well written and informative prose. While including the keywords in the content is advisable, simply cramming as many in as possible is likely to have negative effects. This is because search engines will see this information as ‘’spammy” and not worthy of ranking highly. In addition, the content should always be updated periodically, this ensures search engine spiders return to your site to find the changes and hence will see at as a more informative and relevant site.

Once again however, even if you do this, the time it will take for success is never certain. Estimates for some key terms range from three to six months although if the key terms are highly competitive, high rankings can take anything from one to two years, in some cases more. This is why it is so important to remain patient when pursuing optimisation methods. There are many business owners out there who after undergoing optimisation are ready to cal it a day after only three months; this is foolhardy as even terms with the lowest levels of competition will struggle to achieve top rankings after this short period of time. That said, you should see some form of improvement from previous rankings after this period, even this is purely a move from page one hundred to page forty. It shows you are moving in the right direction.

Hopefully this has given those pursuing optimisation a better understanding of how long it will take and why patience is especially a virtue in the SEO industry.

About The Author

Internet marketing expert Thomas Pretty looks into the importance patience and keywords when pursuing a search engine optimisation strategy.

By Cheow Yu Yuan

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of building a website that is technically suitable for search engines to read and index it. With a website that is technically suitable for indexing, it will rank higher on search engine result pages for target keywords or key phrases that you are optimizing for.

Organic traffic from search engines usually occupies the biggest pie of a website overall traffic. Therefore, it is extremely important for you to know how to optimize your website to achieve high rankings for various search terms. So how to SEO your website and achieve good natural search results? Let me share with you the 3 most important SEO strategies that must be put in place:

1. Proper on-page optimization. Although it is important to create a website that is aesthetically pleasing for human visitors, you should not neglect the underlying coding and content of your site. This is because in order to obtain good natural search rankings, the coding architecture and content of your website are extremely important. You need to ensure that the basics are in place for each page of your website. Every page of your website should be optimized for target key phrases that are relevant to the content of the page itself. Make sure that the relevant HTML Title, H1, H2, Alt, and Meta tags contain your target key phrases. On your page, do place navigation text links for spiders to follow so that it can index other underlying pages.

2. Optimized content. When it comes to SEO, content is king. Keywords should be littered within your content so as to make your pages more relevant to search engines. You should also keep the content of your site fresh so as to facilitate indexing by spiders. One thing to note is that you should not place too many keywords within your content just for the sake of ranking well. Google will view this as keyword spamming. Also, ensure that your content is unique. Never repeat or copy & paste content from other websites.

3. Get more backlinks. Another important factor for your website to rank well is to have good link popularity. To obtain good link popularity, you need to get websites to link back to your pages. You should add it to directories such as Yahoo and DMOZ to get valuable link juices. Additional thing that you can do is to write articles and submit them to article directories.

SEO is a complicated topic and we have just scratched the surface here. However, I still hope that you have benefited from the points that I have shared with you here.

About The Author

Cheow Yu Yuan is the co-founder of OOm, an online marketing agency providing SEO Singapore services.

Check out more about SEO at www.optimalonlinemarketing.com

By Bill Miller

Let me start off by saying that not all of the tips below will work for everyone. It really depends on your skill sets and how well you know the workings of the Internet Marketing community. You should use these, or any other traffic generating tips, with care. Use them at your own risk.

Blog and Website owners are always looking for effective ways to drive quality traffic to their sites. For some, this can be a hair pulling effort. For others, it seems no matter what they try, traffic comes rolling in.

Here are 9 Low Cost Ways to Drive Traffic To Your Site

Pay-Per-Click Programs - You should try Adwords and other Pay-Per-Click programs such as Yahoo Publisher Network and Microsoft AdCenter, only if you have a good understanding of how PPC programs work. Newbies should not dive into PPC unless you have a large budget. A better way to use Adwords would be to use the site targeted feature of Adwords and choose sites that are relevant to yours. Site targeted Adwords are charged on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis rather than a per-click basis.

Banner Advertising - In my blog post title “15 Adsense Alternatives”, I feature 15 programs to replace Adsense. You can use many of these same programs, such as AdBrite, to advertise on. Speaking of AdBrite, I”ve seen them on some very specific sites where Adsense was not used. This could be for a variety of reasons, but it’’s worth checking into sites where you”d like to advertise and see which program they are using to monetize their site.

Sponsored Reviews- Paying for a few site targeted reviews of your site could bring in a huge flood of new readers to your site. Sites like PayPerPost, ReviewMe and SponsoredReviews can be a low-cost goldmine for some site owners.

Private Advertising - You don”t have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to get your ad on sites like JohnChow or ShoeMoney to take advantage of private advertising. There are a lot of popular sites on the Internet that have very targeted readers where you can buy an ad for peanuts. You can get a nice banner ad on some of these sites for as little as $25 per month.

Buy Links- Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what Google says about buying text links. When done right, Google or no one else can spot a paid link. They”re effective when placed on the right site and when done correctly. I Do Not recommend buying site wide text links in sidebars. I think the best links to buy are the ones in related post about relevant services or products you offer. You can find links on sites such as the Marketplace on DigitalPoint Forums, SitePoint, Text-Link-Ads, tnx.net and TextLinkBrokers. Another effective method is just to email the site owner and offer them some money to buy a one way link to your site. Don”t try to be cheap, it”ll turn off the site owner and they may never respond!

Blog Networks - I”ve never used Blog Networks, but I know a few site owners who swear by the traffic from Blog Networks like Blog Explosion, Blog Advance, Blog Soldiers and the new Blog Rush. With these networks, you get credits for sending traffic to other Network members sites. In many cases, you can also purchase credits at a reasonable rate. In turn, you use these credits to “buy” impressions back to your site. As good as that sounds, I probably still bring in more traffic with article marketing and ezinearticles.

Stumble Upon Ads- StumbleUpon sends me a lot of traffic naturally on many of my sites. But for those who just don”t have the time or expertise to get that rush of traffic from SU, they do have ads and many can be had for as little as 5 centers per click. This is cheap in anyones book!

Paid Posters - This is another method I”ve never used, but know some people who swear by it. This works by paying people to post on forums and blog comments and leaving a link back to your site. From the prices I”ve seen, you can get this done for as little as 10 to 20 cents per post. Browse the Marketplaces on DigitalPoint Forums and SitePoint to find paid posters.

Automobile Ad Wraps - (bet you didn”t see this one coming!) These can be very effective if you have a product or service that serves a local market. This program works when a broker pays drivers to drive around with magnetic signs or auto-wraps on their vehicles. People pay attention to ads on vehicles and this can drive some very targeted traffic to your site or local business. Places to look are; Ad-Wraps, AutoWrapped.Com and AutoMurals.Com. I know a small businessman in the Northwest that post “Want Ads” on Craigslist, Kijiji and other local classified ad sites looking for driver. He cuts out the Middleman and saves some serious money in the process.

The important thing is to test, test and test more if you want to take full advantage of any of these programs! I think you”ll be amazed at how much traffic you can generate with a little bit of money.

Use any of these methods at your own risk. These have worked for other Webmasters but may not work for you. It all depends on your comfort level and your skill level.

About The Author

The Beginners Guide To Making Money On The Internet brings you these traffic tips. He reviews making money on the Internet and other money making ventures that helps beginners get started in Affiliate Marketing. See his expose on Driving Massive Traffic To Your Website at his blog.

By Randy Zlobec

Social media optimization (SMO) is an online technique for getting yourself and your online business a high profile and lots of traffic by maximizing your use of social networking online.

Social media optimization includes using social bookmarking websites for your articles and content, using RSS feeds, blogging, and sharing “tagged” photographs on Flickr or videos on places such as Video Jug or YouTube.

Social media optimization is an offshoot of SEO marketing techniques, except this is more about placement than content (though you still need to start with content) and generating website traffic straight from sources other than search engine results pages. Social media optimization is also a form of viral marketing; that is, a marketing technique where just one marketing piece gets shared and re-sent (and thus viewed and/or heard) in an ever-increasing, parabolic way throughout the Internet at very little cost to you.

This is also a 21st century online version of what successful businessmen and marketers have always done: networking in social settings to build trust and a reputation for being someone who can be related to. Networking is the most efficient means of target marketing, and the reach and speed of the Internet just amplifies or magnifies its power.

(SMO) was coined by Rohit Bhargava, who publishes the Influential Marketing Blog and is very influential indeed. He says that SMO is to be used to: increase your linkability; make tagging and bookmarking easy; reward inbound links; help your content travel; encourage the “mashup” (Mixture of content or elements. For instance, an application that was built from routines from multiple sources or a Web site that combines content and/or scripts from multiple sources is said to be a mashup.~ Computer Desktop Encyclopedia); and get communities connected.

Linkability is the key to all Internet success. It’’s simply the quality of being a desirable place for other people to link to from their websites or to tell other people about online (such as at the social bookmarking websites like Digg, Yahoo My Web, Propeller, etc.).

Tagging and bookmarking are made easier by SMO because you can tag a ton of your content the same and similar ways to maximize the targeting of a given audience.

Inbound links are rewarded by being seen as “strong” by the webcrawlers. This rewards your site and sites that choose to link to your site by increasing your profiles on search engines.

Needless to say, helping your content travel and the “mashup” have been discussed above in so many words. In essence, with SMO you”re weaving your tangled Internet web and creating something like a neural network over which are transmitted ever stronger and faster signals, all giving you increased traffic and increased business.

Social media optimization should be used by anyone who is serious about Internet marketing success.

About The Author

Randy Zlobec, Search Engine Marketing Expert who also offers Social Media Optimization & Search Engine Marketing services.

By Randy Zlobec

I ran across a respected website where they were talking about “Destination Marketing” where by implementing a model where the website that a person lands on when clicking through a search result becomes the end of their search - in other words, a resource that fits all of their needs and is essentially the first and last website they will need to surf to in order to get their questions answered and their problems solved.

In the past it has been all about attaining the top 10 positions on generalized keywords and keyword phrases in a particular niche. While the content was there, it wasn”t the total package because webmasters and companies were more interested in getting on the first page of the major search engines rather than wondering what would happen once that desired flood of traffic arrived.

One thing I realized was that our firm had always built Destination pages and used the idea of destination marketing to not only get our clients great results in the search engines, but also have the pages where visitors arrived ready to be a one-stop solution package that the company could offer as both a resource and a platform for selling products and services.

Getting high rankings we have long known is only half of the equation. In order to attain and maintain high rankings as well as the tops in customer satisfaction required that we develop marketing strategies that took into account both search engine optimization for landing pages always delivered with a focus on providing exactly what the arriving and prospective customer needs.

In a way, the definition of Destination Search Engine Marketing is a desired destination point. In order to attain this status every marketing campaign needs to achieve top rankings and go that much further to meet the needs and desires of a specific target audience. When a site becomes a resource that people tell others about and point and return to, it has become a destination website. In a way, it is like having a resource booklet with links, sources, materials, products and services that are aligned with the search engine message and always in total sync with why a customer clicked on the SERPs results.

When one looks at SEO, rankings are at the top. Getting good ranking is what it’’s all about. Knowing that is the start and not the end all to search engine marketing, many companies are now going beyond the traditional search engine optimization techniques offering clients the ability to create exceptional webpages that are tightly focussed and designed to satisfy arriving web traffic.

By taking the focus off of just getting high rankings in the search engines and looking and dealing with the total presentation, this new term Destination Marketing is in many instances like our firm already at the forefront and on the cutting edge of this marketplace.

Having a name for this methodology is great and the article went further to back up what we”ve said all along. Destination SEM is developing a website that is a cut above the mediocre SEO only sites. It attains high search engine rankings because it is not only optimized but highly deserving of those search engine results. When visitors arrive at websites they will always feel that they have arrived at a site with the complete answer to their problems.

Clients, as a result, can offer products and services, rapidly build and maintain credibility and increase ROI at faster rates. Going at it from the idea that by building an incredibly good and useful site and as a result gaining high rankings is a concept that is building in popularity and one that we”ve used successfully for our clients for quite a while.

The big picture of utilizing a destination marketing approach comes in the form of additional exposure and positive company branding that a client will receive when they shift paradigms from getting high search engine rankings alone. Not only will traffic arriving be more satisfied, it is a known fact that people drive the Internet.

One satisfied customer will tell another one who will tell another. The flipside to that which many firms have suffered is that if they are only optimized to get a visitor to their site, their credibility will suffer and trust will decrease based upon what the site offers to an arriving web surfer. What that means is that conversion rates and sales profits will decrease according to the level of professionalism, friendliness and amount of useful information provided when visitors arrive.

Destination marketing is about asking yourself a question every time you start out to build a page or pages for your site: Do you simply want an average/mediocre site that only half delivers? Or, do you want a site that goes viral, where the amount of good, useful information transforms it into a resource that everyone is looking for, will bookmark and return to again and again.

Answering that question is what makes the difference between having a good site and a great site. Destination marketing is all about making fantastic, useful resource sites that are authorities in specific niches.

About The Author

Randy Zlobec, Search Engine Marketing Expert who also offers Search Engine Optimization & Search Engine Marketing Services.

By Thomas Pretty

In the world of search engine optimisation the ”big three”, that is Google, MSN and Yahoo are regarded to be the focus of any optimisation effort. These three search engines however all use algorithms which although similar, are different enough to bring diverse results for the same key terms. Despite the differences, through effective measures it is possible to achieve good rankings in all three. Most SEO specialists see this as the biggest challenge, to achieve good rankings in the ”big three” simultaneously.

The ”big three” may have differing methods but ultimately their objectives are the same. This is to supply the user with the most relevant and useful results for any particular search term. This is why, with specialist knowledge it is possible to achieve high rankings in all three engines. Obviously however, if the key terms being targeted are too generic and competitive, achieving top spot in all of the ”big three” is an exceptionally difficult task. Subsequently when selecting keywords it is essential to find a balance between competition and specialisation. Too generic and competition will be too high, too specific and the search volume will be too low.

Most search engine optimisation industry workers will agree that in terms of difficulty MSN, Yahoo and Google differ; MSN usually being the easiest to achieve rankings, followed by Yahoo and then Google.

MSN requires an approach than is heavily link focussed, although content is still important. MSN tends to be the fastest of the three to pick up on changes in content and links and hence will yield results more quickly. Some analysts estimate that although MSN is considered the third most popular engine, the users are over ten percent more likely to buy the items they are looking at in comparison to Google and Yahoo. In terms of results, six months will be the benchmark of success in MSN, this is however dependent upon the competition for the search terms.

Yahoo generally uses the same methods of operation as MSN meaning that optimisation for one will normally produce results in both. Yahoo in recent years however have decided to pursue similar methods as the market leader Google. This move is probably an attempt to court some of the millions of people who use Google to instead choose Yahoo. Part of this effort has focussed on creating greater emphasis on the temporal nature of links, meaning that sights with relevant and recent links will rank higher. This does however mean that optimisers must have a constant approach if they want to achieve consistent results in Yahoo.

Naturally Google is the primary focus for all SEO specialists. As the world’’s most popular search engine it creates more traffic than both of the others combined. Ethical methods of optimisation are most worthwhile with Google as operatives are adept at picking up black hat techniques. Content is king and holds a great deal of sway when it comes to compiling rankings; as do the number of links to a site. Out of the ”big three” results in Google will take the longest but ultimately are the most worthwhile.

When pursuing optimisation it is normally the case that by applying methods that work best in Google, results will be forthcoming in the other two. By striving to create well written, structured and constructed content success will be attainable. Success will not be immediate however, optimisation is a long game that only brings high rankings and increased traffic in an elongated period of time.

About The Author

Internet marketing expert Thomas Pretty looks at the major search engines and how search engine optimisation methods can differ for each.

By Garey Simmons

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. Specific and effective road signs are needed to direct these visitors to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords. The right keywords are, to phrase it lightly, the ”Open Sesame!” of the Internet.

The right words or phrases will bring an unlimited amount of traffic to your site. However, if your keywords are too general or over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it the way to your site, or of you seeing any real profits from the visitors who do arrive, decreases at a dramatic rate.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen carefully, the right people may never get the chance to find out about your marketing campaign regardless of how carefully planned and effective it may be. Your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know the exact words to use for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven”t followed certain specific steps, you are probably wrong. Objectivity is difficult when you are in the midst of your business network, which is why you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside.

You need to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as possible. You will most likely find out that your perspective of your business differs significantly from that of your customers.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered. Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keywords to the list. Once you have this list prepared, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of the evaluation process is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors, or those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures, to your website.

In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind these three elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine likely to direct visitors to your URL. You can purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on genuine search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will suggest variations of your words and phrases.

The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this idea is that the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you must obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer likely will never scroll down to find you.

Specificity is also important. The more specific a keyword is, the more likely that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you. Let’’s look at a hypothetical example. Say you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword “automobile companies.” However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword “automobile body shops” would rank lower on the popularity scale than “automobile companies,” but it would serve you much better.

Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing oil filters, you will attract only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders. In other words, consumers prepared to buy your services are the ones who will find you immediately. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword, the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase. Let’’s look at another example, such as a consumer who seeks job as an IT manager in a new city.

If you have to choose between “Seattle job listings” and “Seattle IT recruiters,” which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would you type into a search engine? The second one, naturally, as it targets people who have decided on their career, have earned the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in between keg parties.

You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until you find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to your site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must evaluate performance across a variety of search engines on a continuous basis, bearing in mind that times and trends shift, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines. Software is now available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

After all, numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You must find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. Although this is a labor-intensive process, the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign will ultimately generate your business” rewards.

About The Author

Garey Simmons writes about
Search Engine Optimization
from personal experience. Having spent countless hours
working with an SEO and how to market his many
business online, Garey has lots of tips to share. For a Free Report ”Business
Owners Fear SEO” go to http://SEOCoach.Net

By Justin Briggs

The key to making money online is being able to generate targeted traffic to your money making sites. The hope is that these visitors will click on your ads and convert. Internet marketers generate this traffic in different ways. Two popular methods are pay per click traffic and SEO for free organic traffic. SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the art of improving your site’’s rank in search engines to drive more traffic to your site. SEO can earn rankings that can generate thousands of visitors a day. The best part of search engine traffic is that it is free. Of course, SEO and link building requires time and money, but your listings do not fall off instantly like PPC ads do when you stop paying out the money.

Google is the most important search engine because it receives about 60% of the internet’’s search traffic. Since Google is so important, most internet marketers work hard to improve their rankings in Google. Keyword research tools can be used to estimate how much traffic you can expect from a certain keyword. The top ranked site gets the bulk of the traffic and the percentage each site in the SERPS receives reduces for sites ranked further down the list.

The key to search engine rankings is link building. Google, and many other search engines, use links as an indicator of a site’’s topic and importance. Building links will move your site up rankings and help your site generate more traffic. Link building is the most time consuming task done in SEO. Internet Marketers will go to great lengths to build links. It is important to keep your link building activities ethical though. Unethical SEO’’s take part in black hat SEO, which can result in a ban from search engines. It is important to investigate the proper ways to promote your site before you begin building links.

The reason search engine traffic is so important is because it is highly targeted. A visitor arriving at your site from a search engine is actively looking for sites on a particular subject. Your site can provide the solution for the visitor in the form of an advertisement. If your traffic is targeted, you will have higher conversions rates. A site can make a solid income by bringing in highly targeted traffic. Anyone interested in making money on the internet should consider investing time in optimizing their site for search engines. It will not only increase your traffic, but will generate targeted traffic. This will convert into money for the site owner.

About The Author

Justin is an SEO expert and runs a site about search engine optimization where he discusses topics like SEO Web Design.

By Adrian McLean

Search engine marketing is a relatively new form of marketing that uses search engines to promote websites and increase the number of visitors to them. This is done in several ways, the main way being getting a website a first page ranking (or preferably first place ranking) on various search engines. By doing this it is thought that visitors are more likely to click into a website that has a high ranking as it is seen to be more relevant to the search that they are performing.

As with any type of marketing there are different ways in which search engine marketing can be utilised - here are some of the methods used to market a website online:
* Search engine optimisation or SEO. This is one of the most popular forms of search engine marketing and works by using tools firstly to determine which are the most popular keywords for what your website is about, and then including those words on your website. For example if you were trying to market a website about cats you would find all the best keywords relating to cats that are popular in internet searches and include them on your website. By using these words at a certain density (usually between 2-5% as anything more could be considered a black hat method and make your website rank poorly) you will increase the rank of your website. Many website owners fail to use this method and as a result wonder why they are not getting the ranking they believe they should for their sites. Using this form of search engine marketing is useful as it not only is relatively easy to use SEO on your website but it is also easy to change.

* Paid inclusion or paid placement. This is the method of paying a search engine fees in order for a website to be included in their results pages and search index (SERPS, search engine results pages)most of the biggest search engines allow this, apart from Google. Paid inclusion can be a useful method of search engine marketing. However many people believe that as websites pay to be included it can result in rankings that are not entirely relevant to a search as they have paid to be there. For this reason some people do not like to use certain search engines as they contain a high percentage of these paid inclusion sites.

* PPC or pay per click. This is similar to paid inclusion however it is a method whereby an advertiser will pay a fee each time a user clicks onto their advertisements on search engines. These advertisements are placed by the advertiser bidding on keywords that are relevant to their adverts and when a person puts one of these keywords into a search engine their advertisement will be shown, usually at the side of the SERPs. If the person searching then clicks into the advertisement the advertiser will have to pay a fee to the search engine. The more popular the keyword that is being bid on the higher the bids and vice versa, so some PPC’’s can be quite costly for the advertiser but they can bring in a high amount of revenue if the website is selling something and people click through to it and make a purchase.

These are just a selection of the methods that are used in search engine marketing and there are, of course, other methods that can be used but these are the most popular. Search engine marketing is a useful way of driving traffic to a website and can be highly profitable.

About The Author

Adrian McLean is Head of SEO and SEM at Search Engine Optimising Ltd. Put your website first with search engine marketing from the leading uk internet marketing agency.