Productive SEO - 6 Steps to Productive SEO

Productive SEO can be the key to the success of your business on the net. Through this article, you are provided six steps to productive as SEO. By following these steps, you will be able to ensure the success of your business enterprise today and well into the future.

The first step towards productive SEO is making sure that you have appropriate keyword enriched content at your website. This is a fundamental step.

The second step towards productive as SEO is incorporating useful metatags at your website. Along with keywords that are in clude it in your content, this is a vital step to ensuring productive SEO.

The third step on the way to productive SEO is to consider hiring an expert to assist you. You need to keep in mind that there are professionals and business today that can greatly assist you in developing a productive as SEO program for your Internet business and website.

The four step on the way to productive as SEO is making sure that your SEO plan is part of a comprehensive marketing program. You cannot develop a productive SEO plan in isolation. Your tart SCO efforts need to go hand in hand with everything else you're doing to promote your Internet business.

The fifth step and involved in productive SEO is to continually revise what you have done in regard to search engine optimization. The Internet is constantly changing. The types of searches that your potential clients or customers are undertaking through search engines are changing all the time as well. You need to stay on top of all of these trends.

The final step associated with productive as SEO is to make sure that you have all of your SEO bases covered. There are many different tools available to you when it comes to search engine optimization. With this in mind you will want to make sure that you make use of all of them. By making use of of the tools that are available to you will be taking affirmative steps to ensure the profitability of your Internet business enterprise.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide

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Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

Website Content - More Than Numbers And Statistics

When writing website content, like many aspects of online marketing, it is easy to get lost in a wash of statistics and numbers; desired word length, keyword ratio, and the Flesch Kincaid grade level are just some of these numbers. A lot of these numbers assist in creating effective copy, but they should not be treated as a rigid plan to write copy. Each site has different requirements, governed by the topic of the site, the knowledge level of site visitors, and the requirement of the Webmaster.

Content Length

The length of a web page is important, but not necessarily the same for every site, or every page. Blogs will, in most cases, require fewer words than a normal website. A blog needs to deliver a quick hit, because this is what blog readers are looking for. Websites trying to convey a technical subject will probably require the use of more words, and longer sentences.

For the average information websites, sentences should average around 10 words or fewer. Most pages will include longer sentences too. Wherever possible, the longer sentences should be dispersed through the page. This helps ensure the page is easily readable by all visitors. Paragraphs should also be short approximately 4 or 5 sentences.

10 word sentences are very short. It would make a page virtually unreadable if you were to try and construct it entirely in this way. However, shorter paragraphs do help create a compelling looking page. Short sentences also make a page easy and appealing to read.

Keyword Density

The keyword density is the number of keywords in a page, in relation to the total words on that page. Initially, the search engines had a very rigid view on ideal keyword density. More recently, though, they have employed more complex rules. In addition, each of the search engines have different requirements.

Keyword density is a maligned facet of website content and SEO. It is important to include keywords. This ensures that the search engines have a way to recognize the topic of the page. Google, in particular, though, considers the supporting keywords on your page. As well as looking at a specific keyword the search engines also consider the stems of keywords and related keywords.

Ensuring that page copy contains relevant keywords, but not too frequently, ensures that the content reads well. Don't attempt to aim for a specific density. Ensure that the content reads well for your visitors, and the rest will naturally follow.

Flesch Reading Ease And Flesch Kincaid Grade Level

The Flesch Reading Ease test includes a lot of the above factors. This mathematical formula uses total words, sentences, and syllables to ascertain a numerical score. The higher the number, the easier the passage is to read. A score of 90-100 can be easily read by a 5th grader. It is believed that websites with a score of 60-80 are the most effective; this score is equivalent to an 8th or 9th grade reading level.

The Flesch Kincaid Grade Level test uses similar figures. However, the score it provides relates to a US grade level. The ideal score for a typical website is 8 or 9.

As with keyword density, sentence length, and paragraph length, you don't need to stick too rigidly to the advised figures. Your visitors won't calculate the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level of your website, but they do want understandable text.

• In order to ensure that visitors don't simply click the Back button, you should also ensure that you use shorter paragraphs.
• The total length of a page also dictates how appealing that page is, in general.
• The reading age and grade level of the page can be used as a good indicator of how easy that page is to read.
• If it reads well, and performs well, the numbers don't matter.

Good website content is key to the performance of your site. WebWiseWords creates compelling content on any topic and for any website.

5 Most Common Lies Told by SEO Companies to Swindle Their Clients

I've worked in and around search engine optimization (SEO) for several years now. But what never ceases to amaze me are the half-truths and outright lies that so many SEO companies use to rope in clients and take their money.

Unfortunately, there is no barrier to entry within the SEO field, or the Internet marketing field as a whole. Anyone can "hang out their sign" and proclaim to be an expert. Thus, it's up to the reputable SEO folks out there (and I throw my own hat into this lot) to raise the bar, set the standards, and call out the shady firms who would bring down our collective reputation.

Here's my little contribution to that end.

Five of the most common lies used by SEO firms to dupe their clients:

1. You need a brand new website ... yours is not "search engine friendly."

This is usually a ploy used by "full-service" Internet marketing firms to extract large (and often unnecessary) design fees from clients. Anybody in the search engine optimization field knows that a complete redesign for SEO purposes is usually unnecessary, at best, and possibly even bad for business. If a website has structural problems that impede its search engine performance, they can almost always be resolved with minor changes to the site.

There are plenty of good reasons to redesign a website. Often, websites need to be redesigned because their designs are outdated, or because they create usability problems for visitors. But redesigning from the ground up simply to make the site more "search engine friendly" is a bogus notion used for money-making purposes. If your Internet marketing firm tells you this, you should fire them for gross incompetence.

2. People do not read website content ... they only scan it.

Some web marketing and SEO firms will espouse this nonsense because (A) they lack in-house writing talent and (B) they plan to "keyword stuff" pages for SEO purposes to the point of creating repulsive gibberish.

"We will use the same keywords over and over, you see. And the search engines will love it, you see. And you'll get top rankings for that phrase. You see?"

What these companies neglect to tell their clients is that (A) all interested consumers will reach a reading stage at some point; (B) keyword-redundant content usually comes off like a five-year-old wrote it, thus repelling those interested consumers; and (C) keyword repetition alone will not bring search engine success.

3. SEO will generate a ton of leads for you!

Search engine optimization can generate traffic, but it cannot produce web leads or inquiries. This is one of the most common misconceptions in website marketing. I've spoken to business owners who had thousands of website visitors each month, but rarely got any leads or inquiries from their website. The simple reason was that they had no lead-generation mechanisms in place.

If you pour a lot of money into an SEO campaign but neglect to pour your energy into effective lead generation as well, you will likely be headed for disappointment. Search engine optimization has a role, and that role is to increase qualified traffic to a website. But unless you capitalize on that traffic with good old-fashioned marketing techniques, it will do you little good.

4. We can guarantee you #1 ranking in Google.

This one is more of a half-truth than an outright lie. But it's still used for deceitful purposes so I've added it to the list. Here's how the scam works.

The SEO company keyword-stuffs a particular page of the client's website with some obscure or overly specific phrase that is easy to rank for in search engines. Then, when the website does in fact rank well for that phrase, they say "Look how great we are!"

Here's the problem with this. The only kind of rankings that are worth pursuing are the rankings that bring qualified traffic to the website. Let me give you an example:

Let's say I had a client who built custom homes in Tallahassee, Florida. The phrases that would bring him the most traffic would include phrases like "custom homes in Tallahassee" ... "custom home builders Tallahassee" ... "New homes in Tallahassee" ... you get the picture. As a competent SEO professional, those are the phrases I would focus on for ranking purposes.

But here's what the shady SEO company with the bold promises would do. They would write a page of content around an obscure or overly specific phrase such as "best custom luxury homes in Tallahassee area of Florida." They would repeat this specific phrase over and over, point some links at the page, and lo and behold it suddenly ranks well for the silly phrase "best custom luxury homes in Tallahassee area of Florida."

The only problem is, nobody is searching such a ridiculous phrase (except the SEO company and the client). So their rankings are worthless -- they will produce no traffic for the client, and thus no business.

I am not exaggerating here. I've seen countless SEO companies brag about such things on the home pages of their websites. That would be like me bragging that I rank #1 for "Brandon Cornett law firm marketing guy." Who would actually search such a phrase, besides me?

5. SEO success takes years ... regardless of what industry you're in.

This one usually comes from the search engine optimization company that simply doesn't know what it's doing. I agree that the first part of this statement has some truth to it. But the second half is where the lie comes into the picture (or maybe just the ignorance).

SEO success in hyper-competitive fields like mortgage lending can, in fact, take a long time to achieve. But there are two different kinds of success in SEO -- the short-term and the long-term.

If, for example, I had a client with a brand new mortgage website, I would explain to them that top rankings for generic mortgage phrases are going to be a while in coming, no matter how much effort I put into their SEO. But by focusing on longer, more specific phrases (that people are actually searching), we could achieve plenty of short-term successes on the way to those long-term goals.

The other part of this blanket statement that's false is the "regardless of industry" clause. Some industry niches are not yet competitive online, especially when you get geographically specific. For example, if I sold bulldozer parts in Michigan, I could probably achieve top rankings in a few months or less -- even with a brand new website. After all, how many bulldozer part suppliers could there be in one state?

If somebody tells you that SEO always takes years to succeed with regardless of your industry, they simply don't know what they're doing.

* You may republish this article online if you retain the author's note below with active hyperlinks intact. A fair exchange, don't you think? Copyright 2007, Brandon Cornett.

About the Author
Brandon Cornett is the owner of Web Smart Lawyer, an Internet marketing firm that caters to lawyers and law firms. He is also the author of a lawyer marketing book that you can download for free at http://www.websmartlawyer.com

The Harsh Reality - It's Top 30 or Nothing

If, as a Internet marketer, you expect to survive and be found , you need to learn how to: 1) place your pages in the high-traffic core, and 2) achieve a high ranking in the major search engines. Otherwise, your sites will be like little islands in the sea: remote, inaccessible, and forgotten.

This means you are solely relying on people typing in your URL in the command lines of their browsers, and this only works if your site is well-known. The days of serendipitous surfers and "accidental traffic" stumbling onto your site are over. On this "new" Internet made up of billions of Web pages, site owners must use every tool available to them to attract visitors. And even then, you face stiff competition.

I only consider a ranking to be a listing within the top 30, because studies have shown that must searchers do not keep clicking through past the third page. In fact, most searchers do not even click-through to the second page. Therefore, a #10 ranking is much more valuable than #27, and #64 is pretty much worthless.

Now, many other search engines do display more than 10 results per page. So, in this case, should you be happy if you are within the top 120? No, because most users still don't appear to click below #30, no matter how many listings are on a page.

For example, if a user performs a query in Google for "cheese" and your site is not listed, then no matter how many types of cheese you sell, or how great your cheesy recipes are, that user will not and cannot arrive at your site. For a search engine to deliver a visitor to your site, the visitor must first click on a search result for your site. Often, owners of large sites that have been on the Web for a while will discover that they have a very large number of search engine referrals. This is because they actually have rankings even before they begin optimizing pages. However, many of these "accidental" rankings will most likely be on keywords that are rarely sought by users. This is due to the fact that the most highly queried keywords are also the most competitive. In other words, it is highly unlikely that you would find accidental rankings for "MP3." The difference between "accidental" ranking and SEO is that SEO is the deliberate optimization of search results in the pursuit of traffic.

The whole point of SEO is to increase traffic to a site. But not just traffic. You want qualified users who are seeking content, product or service that your site can provide. Therefore, it is important to remember what a ranking actually is. Many times SEO professionals will be overjoyed with a top 10 ranking that a site has achieved, and the site owner (rightfully) says, "So, what? I still don't have any sales!" A ranking doesn't directly equal traffic, and traffic doesn't directly equal sales.

Pamela Upshur is the owner of Upshur Creative.

Upshur Creative combines fresh, contemporary, fully functional turnkey websites with the best PHP scripts and databases to create the largest and most comprehensive turnkey collection for entrepreneurs.

Visit her site at: Turnkey Home Based Business.

Internet Marketing - 4 Effective Strategies That Will Boost Your Business

The world of internet marketing is no different than the world of traditional business. There are certain strategies you can use to get ahead and drastically build and/or grow you business. I am just going to tell you about 4 strategies that have been extremely effective for internet marketers. More importantly I will tell you why these strategies have been so effective for internet marketing specifically.

Internet marketing strategies #1 - make it easy to manage your website

Find content management systems or website design software that allows you to changes to your site very easily. The easier it is to setup and manage your website the more time you have to focus on other aspects that matter more, such as your marketing efforts. I often coach internet marketers and the first thing I find out that they are so busy trying to "save" money that they sometimes waste several days working on their website. There are content management systems out there that cost a little more, but are worth it because it gives you more time to make money. The reward is much higher than the amounts you put out to get access to these types of systems.

Internet marketing strategy #2 -Expect some basic expenses

So many people that get into internet marketing expect to be able to everything for nothing. Even though there are quite a bit of things that can be done without any costs, you are always going to be faced with certain expenses. Just your basic costs for running a website and having a good auto-responder system is going to cost you about $30-40 a month. In addition if you want to do effective advertising you should expect to spend some money on SEO and PPC as well. Do what any business should do, take at least 7-10% of what you earn and put it back into marketing. In the beginning you can estimate that you will need to put out that same percentage of what you would like to make. This means that if you would like to make $1.000 expect to spend $70-$100 making it. Your best marketing expenses can be investing in educational material.

Internet marketing strategy #3 - Find good information or mentors

You can do this in one of two ways, either hire someone or gather as much information as you can by doing research. The faster way of the two, is probably hiring a mentor and boost you into making money online very quickly. The gathering and information learning that way require two things of you, first you need to be able to look at what they are doing and understand why they do it that way. The other one is simply getting all the free guides that are given away. You would be amazed with the amount of information that is given away. The downside or possibly a good bonus is that you will probably be required to sign up for multiple opt-in lists to get them. I know people that subscribe to 8-10 different mailing lists just to get access to free information. If you pick the mailing lists you sign up to wisely you can learn quite a bit. Of course buying a book on SEO or hiring a mentor will be quicker and easier, if you find a good one they will be able to work with you and help you understand exactly what it is that you need to do.

Internet marketing strategy #4 - Be active online

Of course you have to actively advertise online that is pretty much a given. One of the extremely underestimated strategies for new internet marketers is the power of chat forums and the willingness to give away advice and help to others. This can be good strategy for those who actually information instead of an actual product, even though it can be great for some products as well. When you chat, and do chat forum advice correctly it can bring you quite a bit of traffic. Do not even try to push people to your product by saying things like "You can find the answer in this product". Make the sale by giving away part of the advice and then you can tell people where you found the information. This is much more effective than telling someone to "buy" the answer. Another way you can be active online is to give away information in other ways, such as maintaining a blog or some other form of free advice or help. No matter which way you choose, giving away information can be effective when done right.

If you think about these 4 strategies they all relate in one way or another, they all deal with how to manage your time and how to invest. There are of course a few more things you need to keep in mind. But these four very basic strategies should at least get you started. I wish you the best of luck with your internet marketing business, if you foundation is good and you understand how to manage your time and your money, you will do great with online marketing. Just like you would with a traditional business, the great news is the risk behind starting an online business is far less of an investment than starting a brick and mortar business.

If you would like more information about internet marketing you can visit our internet marketing blog.

Gudmundur Sigurdarson (Gummi) is the founder of Redknight Marketing, online marketing and website design, Mindformula, life and executive coaching and 10make90, internet marketing resources. He is the former VP of DesignEuropA where he worked with several hundred businesses over the course of 6 years, helping them grow their business both on and off line. Mr. Sigurdarson created the sales manuals, sales training, franchise model and franchise training program for DesignEuropA. In addition Mr. Sigurdarson has written a number of books on personal and professional development, online marketing, website creation and business startup guides. Mr. Sigurdarson has a dedication to helping people succeed, he does this both as an author, corporate trainer, speaker and coach.

Article Marketing 101 - Quick And Easy Steps To Promoting Your Business For Free

There are many different ways to promote your business on the internet. You can use PPC, ezine advertising and search engine optimization to name a few. Unfortunately for most people who are new to internet marketing these options can be very overwhelming. You need to have some money to invest to tweak your paid advertising so that you can actually get it right. Search engine optimization takes long and can be complicated and you may also not receive the conversions that you want.

The two things that I like very much about article marketing is that you get very good conversions which can be up to 10 times better than leads from other sources. So if you are new to internet marketing and trying to sell your new product it will be so much easier. Also it is completely free and only requires some time of your to write articles.

However, it can be really difficult to get started using this method of advertising your business. I remember when I first got started I really struggled to write articles. The main reason is that you need to train your brain to do this. The more practise you get the easier it will become. This is the formula that I use to write my articles. I will think of a specific area concerning my niche market and write focusing on this. I then come up with a killer title. I will write the introduction and conclusion next as these are the easiest to write first. Then I will focus on the meat of the article or the body.

I brainstorm various ideas and then think of bullet points that represent each idea. I will write one complete paragraph for each bullet point. I then proof read the article and submit it to the major article directories the following day.

Once you get going it will become easier to start writing consistently and consequently you will start getting highly qualified traffic to your website.

Are you really interested in driving massive traffic to your website?

Here's the answer:

Secrets Of Article Marketing - Download your free ebook now.

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.