The Anarcho Geek Info Center

Driving Dealings to Your Site and to Your Bed and Breakfast is 2 Faces of the Selfsame Mint

Pushing traffic to your web site or to your hotel needs good foot work and draws of optimization both for your website and for your hotel. The optimisation for your web site will go via a repuable SEO Supporter and the optimisation for your motel is mostly done by the hotel itself, a good example of a Purple Cow in hotels is the Fox Hotel in Copenhagen, which got a clean make over by artists and was the home of the launching of the new VW Fox in Denmark.

The first affair to do is to get a great address, for your web site this means getting a good PHP host and a nice domain, for your motel, this entails having a outstanding address in the town where your bed and breakfast is situated, preferable in the very heart of town.

Holding a good address for your bed and breakfast lands lots of visitors just by itself. For your internet site this is not so simple, you need featured rankings in search engines and to get these you will require to do search engine optimisation. A decently optimized web site will bring you tons of visitants to your web site, visitors who are future clients at your motel.

Search engine optimization in the travel industry is really difficult and you will demand the best SEO Company to do the preparation and implementation of every chores needed in the process. You must also be conscious that Search engine optimization takes time, so solitaire is a merit.

Question 1

How do keywords effect your conversion rate in terms of SEO/SEM (search engine optimization/marketing)?

Keywords are important for two reasons.

Firstly by using the keywords which relate to your reader you get listed by search engines accordingly meaning that people can find you. Notice that I phrased the last sentence carefully. I said ‘keywords which relate to your reader’. It’s important to understand that what you consider ‘key words’ might not be the keywords your visitors are using to reach you.

Secondly and from my point of view more importantly keywords help to qualify your audience after they have arrived at your web site. If you click through from a search engine to a web site and the headline or first paragraph don’t strike you as relevant to what you’re looking for you’re likely to ‘bounce’ (in other words leave the site). The key words you use help to assure your visitor they are in the right place.

Good use of keywords embedded in your copy and content will firstly help you to attract the right kind of people and secondly help to effectively qualify them as being in the right place. If you manage to attract and qualify them, the reader is then more likely to click through to find out more about what your website is about. If they do that, there is a much higher chance that they will convert to your desired goal.

A good SEO or SEM company in my opinion is one that understands that it’s about answering the visitors’ needs, not simply packing the website with related key words and phrases.

Question 2

What Is PPC (pay per click) and is it worth the money? Does it effect conversion?

Pay per click (or PPC) is when you set-up an account with a search engine (Google or Overture for instance) and write ads which appear when a certain keyword is requested by a visitor to the search engine. If a visitor clicks your ad you pay a predefined fee to the search engine. PPC done correctly is a good way to drive people interested in your product or services to your website and clever PPC marketing should positively effect conversion.

One of our clients recently asked me about a PPC campaign (run by another company) that was converting poorly. The reason it was converting poorly is because the ad was optimized to be clicked through and not optimized to qualify the reader. To explain in more detail, the product in the ad was a mobility scooter costing $1850. The ad explained you could get great discounts on mobility scooters and therefore the click through on the ad was quite high. Therefore it was an expensive campaign for our client which didn’t convert into sales.

In my opinion this particular ad should try to qualify the reader more by having the price and location in the ad. My reasoning is that a fair percentage of visitors who are interesting in purchasing an expensive item like a mobility scooter will want to see it first. Therefore a good way to actually sell this particular product is to tell the reader the price and location so they know without going to the website whether the product is for them. If they click through and look it doesn’t matter if they don’t purchase but then come to the physical store and buy because they know the product is in their home town. Price in the ad pre-qualifies that they have the money. So if they have the money, are in the market and are in the same city there is a much higher chance of a purchase.

Another thing you should remember in PPC campaigns is the relevance of the ad to your landing page. It’s an often overlooked problem that the PPC ad doesn’t relate directly to the landing page. In the case of our client they did this correctly by linking the Google ads directly to the page about mobility scooters. A common mistake however is to link the ads to a home page which expects the visitor to work to find what it is you’re selling.

Too many PPC companies work on click through as their gauge of success. They see it as their job to drive the traffic rather than convert it. The idea of successful PPC marketing is simple economics. You spend less than you earn from the visitors that arrive and make a profit. However ads that use the shotgun approach aren’t doing you any favors. Ads that you’re paying for should bring in very interested and pre-qualified visitors that convert at a higher level than free traffic.

Question 3.

When people first arrive at your website they are a mixed crowd (coming from everywhere with different expectations) how do you cater for them all?

You can’t please everyone and it’s fatal to try to do so. You have to figure out your best chance of business from your audience and cater to that area of business. If you have a large varied audience or are running some kind of portal then you should have a clear strategy to attract people to dedicated sections of your website.

For instance in the field of small business there are 1000’s of different wants, needs and requirements to cater for. Your landing page (home or index page) is going to have a very hard time catering for all of those people effectively. So quite simply don’t try. Figure out by measuring how people find you, what the biggest segment of traffic look for and cater for that group. Then take the second biggest segment of traffic and develop a different landing page for them, using content (and embedded keywords) more relevant to their wants and needs. It’s possible to develop big websites which cater for a variety of different audiences but not all in the same page.

For instance, a small business owner in need of a sample contract of employment isn’t immediately going to be interested in accountancy services. He might be interested in a resources section which has sample documents for download and lawyers who cater for small businesses. If therefore this visitor arrived to find a website with a plethora of choices when all he wants is a sample contract then he is likely to leave.

If however a section of your website was dedicated solely to business documents and sample downloads for small businesses and the visitor clicks through to this page from a search engine, there is a much higher chance he will browse to find what he is looking for. If then he sees that you have more resources (like an accountancy portal link) then he may even bookmark your site before leaving and that’s what you want, repeat visitors.

Question 4.

I know about testing, but how much traffic (people landing on the test page) do you need to determine if something is not working?

Again the focus is where your visitors are coming from. If you have well targeted traffic arriving at your pages (i.e. PPC or strategic links) a fair sample size is when 1000 people have visited the site (or test page). At least that’s the minimum we use to make any decisions with. When traffic is less targeted and bounce rates are higher then you have to make a decision based on larger numbers. If for instance one week 500 visitors arrived at your website which weren’t your target audience, it’s fair to say that you should discount them from your testing.

It all depends on you knowing where your visitors are coming from which requires a good measurement tool.

Question 5.

Is it really necessary to be listed at the top of the search engines? What are the other alternatives that clients should consider or is this perceived ‘holy grail’ really something we should all be chasing?

Being at the top of the search engines is not entirely necessary but it certainly helps. You should try to get a listing on the first page of results for your chosen keywords. Put simply if people have to look through to link number 8074 on Google to read about your products and services then you’re not likely to be found.

For example if you do a Google search for ‘improving website conversion’ our site appears in the top position as we’ve optimized for that key phrase. We hoped that this is what our potential visitor will key in when doing a search. However while this was part of our strategy it was only a very small part as you cannot rely on search engine algorithms to pay your bills.

The alternative and safety net to relying on the all powerful search engine algorithm is to find strategic partners who like what you do and want to re-print your information. That is what people go online to do, find information and surprisingly not enough businesses realize this.

Strategic linking while harder work than submitting your site to search engines works very well. The subscription conversion rate average from our top strategic partners is 31%. By that I mean nearly a 3rd of the visits coming from the partners who re-print our articles subscribe. Because the partners we’re working with are well known and highly respected they are a great qualification vehicle. Upon visiting our partner website, the visitor reads what we’ve said (in articles, forum posts, blog entries, advertisements etc.), like what they see, click through to our site and subscribe. In this way the reader arrives warmed up to what you have to say so the conversion rate is much improved.

The added benefit of this is that the more outbound links you have pointing to you, the higher your ranking gets on many of the search engines. Another benefit is that even if you can’t get listed on search engines directly for all your keywords, some of the partner sites will do so due to their own visibility, so more paths flow to you. This is a far more effective strategy than SEO/SEM alone.

Summary

This article has been about one subject, relevance. You begin with keywords which relate to and qualify your readers. This helps with search engine visibility and means your visitors feel like they are in the right place when they arrive at your website. PPC campaigns should qualify your audience initially and when clicked should land at a highly relevant and specific landing page. This means your advertisements are working for you and not simply driving traffic which isn’t targeted well enough. Your web site message should not try to cater for everyone, it should be specific and relevant to a particular target market. This means that you can focus your message in relation to what your visitor wants. Finally you should find strategic partners who work in related industries with similar target audiences to your own. This means you improve your own visibility to your target audience. In simple terms being relevant means putting the right offer in front of the right people and by getting more of the right people to your website, you improve your conversion rates considerably.

Steve Jackson is CEO of Aboavista, editor of The Conversion Chronicles and a published writer. You can get a free copy of his e-book sent to you upon subscription to the Chronicles web site (http://www.conversionchronicles.com).

One of the most crucial aspects of any online business is how do I come through in the search engines like Google. How do I make my site to rank comfortably in Google?

One of the most consequential aspects of doing competing in the search engines (forgetting the basics like excellent content are already in place) is generating links for your website. You can garner this a couple of different ways, some taken positively by the engines and some not so positively.

A true styles, that the search engine engineers think is right is link building with articles.

Fundamentally this necessitates composing a great article, rather around something from your area of knowledge, and then publishing it to a free article directory.

You really should not lowball the crucial nature of link building. If there is one signal that means the most to the search engines, in general, it is links. Sure, there are heaps of other signals, like the domain name, but you are kidding yourself if you think you are going to be listed well, and easily seen, if you do not possess any links.

Building links with articles is easy. It is something the search engines say is okay. And, it adds value to the web, by providing valuable content that might be interesting or useful to users. The real question is what are you waiting for?

Previously…

In our article on Understanding Google’s Algorithm, a brief explanation was given on what the Google algorithm is and a few general tips were given to help the beginner to optimize their website for it. This article will go into much more depth on different tactics to use to further optimize your site for higher rankings in Google’s search engine.

Types of Optimization

As explained in the previous article, there is a myriad of things needed to be done in order to properly and completely optimize your site to take advantage of Google’s algorithm. Here is a quick list of the things we will be learning to optimize, which will be explained in further depth shortly.

Things we will be going over in this article will include: Text Links and Optimization, Content Optimization, Domain Registration, Whois Information, Click Through Rates, PR (Page Rank), Traffic, Frequency of Updates, and IP address.

Text Links and Optimization

Although briefly explained in the first article, there are new ways of getting good links coming out almost daily, and having a deeper knowledge of getting links to your site from related ones is always important. As said before, try to stay away from the doorway pages or portals out there, as well as the FFA pages, as these will hurt your rankings on the major search engines more than help them. Be careful who you request links from, in regards to sites that are not within your specific category, or at the very least make sure they have a section for your general area on their links page, such as a “web services” section if you are a web hosting company.

Links from completely unrelated sites on a page with links from all different categories from all over the internet will not benefit your site much, if at all. This being said, don’t worry if a site adds a link to your own without a request simply because they like your site or services or product. The added traffic is always a plus, and if you don’t already have a lot of incoming links, every little bit helps.

Content Optimization

Be sure your content is all related to the subject your site is based on. Don’t have articles on the latest video games if you sell furniture, as the keywords are much less likely to get picked up, and most people looking to buy furniture online don’t want to be bogged down searching through hundreds of pages of video game reviews while trying to find a couch that will match their living room set.

Free content sites are always helpful, and although the content is duplicate, with the added articles and guides you will attract more visitors, increasing your rating through the quality of your traffic. Be sure to always include the article exactly as you got it, and include the actual author’s name and a link to their site at the very least. Stay away from tactics such as simply copying another site’s front page for an article, even if you plan on giving an author name and a link to where you got the information from. This can be seen as not only duplicate content, but is also a technique used by spammers to provide a huge collection of “content” in order to boost their rankings. Once the same information has been seen enough times by the Google spiders, it is considered “duplicate content” and therefore disregarded.

The most important thing to remember when trying to optimize your content is that writing your own articles and information will provide your site with free, unique content. This attracts browsers and at the same time impresses the Google spiders. Having unique content will even make other webmasters much more apt to link to your site as an “authority” in the field.

Domain Registration

Another thing checked for by the Google algorithm is how long your domain is actually registered for. Many Spam sites only register domain names for one year, leaving it to die so they can move on with an untainted domain name to attempt to spam their way into the top rankings on Google. Keeping your domain registered for five or more years, although it may cost a bit more initially, will help your rankings considerably in Google’s search engine rankings.

Whois Information

Your Whois information, as stated in the previous article, is also taken into account when calculating your rankings on the search engine. Is your physical address a real place, or was it falsified? Is your contact information up to date, including your phone number and mailing address? Is your name associated with spam sites from the past? All this information is recorded and worked into the algorithm. Just be sure to have your actual information used when registering a domain name, and make sure your contact information is accurate. Another tip would be to use your full name when registering a domain name, including middle name as well as any titles, such as Junior or the Third, as this will help to prevent confusion between yourself and other webmasters.

Click Through Rates (CTR)

Click through rates on your site are now observed by Google as well. If your site is seen on the Google search results, how often is it clicked instead of the other 9 sites on the same page? This is tracked with many things in mind, including seasonal click through rates as well as current trends among browsers. In this system, if you own a ski shop online, obviously your site will be ranked higher during the winter on certain keywords than during the summer. Likewise, if you promote a beach resort online, then your site will be more likely to be ranked higher during the summer months and during spring break than during the winter or fall.

PR (Google’s Page Rank)

PR, or Google’s Page Ranking system, is a way to keep track of how popular your site is. This is determined through traffic to your site as well as the amount of related sites linking to your own. The complexities of this system have not fully been discovered yet, but the main thing to know is that the more related links and the more high quality traffic you have coming to your site the higher your PR will be. With links from high PR sites, your own PR will skyrocket, bringing you ever higher in Google’s search results.

The algorithm also takes your PR into account when working out rankings. The higher PR your site has (on all of its pages), and the longer your site has a high PR, the more likely you are to get in the top rankings with Google. Even with a page ranking of 6 (out of 10), the results can be astounding, and your ranking within the search results will continue to grow.

Traffic

Traffic is also monitored to and from your site, and even how long your visitors stay. This allows Google to accurately gauge the amount of “real” traffic you get in any given month, as well as the type of visitors you receive and the overall popularity of your site. Now, for the younger sites that only get a few hits a day at most, this will not effect your rankings as much as the larger sites with hundreds or thousands of visitors a day. Instead of focusing on the amount of traffic you get to your site, focus on the quality of the traffic you receive. With more visitors that stay longer and actually stay to view your site and purchase your product or sign up as users, you should be able to get better rankings than some of the sites that have three times the volume of traffic but one tenth the amount of time spent by that traffic on your site.

Quality is king, while quantity is simply an added benefit on today’s internet. Work on your quality and then you can focus on the quantity.

Update Frequency

Spiders from Google also check the frequency your site is updated with their new algorithm. The more your site is updated, in essence, with fresh and unique content, the higher it will become ranked in the Google search engine. If you take a month vacation, leaving your site to gather dust until you come back, be prepared for a drop in your rankings. If you update your site daily, on the other hand, you can expect to be ranked much higher (provided you have fresh, related content) than the sites that only update once a week.

Basically, as the old adage says, “You reap what you sew.” Or, in other words, the more work you put into something, the better results will come of it. In general, this remains true for not only Google, but the other search engines and directories as well.

IP Address

Even the IP address is considered in the Google Algorithm, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on the other websites that are currently sharing your IP. If you are on a specific IP address that is dedicated to your site, you have little to worry about, but if your IP is shared between multiple websites, you could have a real problem. IP addresses are recorded and compared between your site and others on the web. If, for example, your site just happens to be on the same server as a spammer who shares your IP, not only will Google delete the spammer from their rankings, but they could also delete your site simply for being related to the Spam site.

Obviously, there are some simple solutions to this problem, including talking to your hosting company to get a dedicated IP address specifically for your own site. This might cost a bit more per month or year, depending on your billing schedule, but the benefits will be numerous. If you simply don’t have the cash flow to pay the extra money per month, you can search through the sites that share your IP and report spammers to your hosting company. In nearly every case they will be ready and willing to get rid of spammers on their server.

Overview

Again, the basic idea is to keep your site reputable in its promotion practices. Stay away from anything that could possibly classify your site as a Spam site, and keep good, relevant links and content coming. For more information, please look at our articles below:

You can see other articles by Claude Beavers on this topic at:
SuperFaster.com - Free Search Engine Optimization Articles and Resources

Increase Your Google Page Rank!

Page Rank. We all know what is. We all want to rank higher. Higher rankings mean a lot of things to a lot of people. To web masters it means achievement. They have accomplished a move in the right direction. A high page rank to a website owner is money in the bank. It is also an impressive accomplishment. To other website owners your page rank may be a source of envy.

To Google your page rank means quality, importance and relevancy. It lets Google know you are a viable resource and a valuable asset. Google takes your Page Rank and combines it with their text-matching techniques. This, combined with a page’s content and the content of the pages linking to it, determines if your site is a good match. So, a higher Page Rank will certainly help you on Google.

As for surfers. Most of them could care less about your Page Rank. In fact, many of them don’t even know what it is. However, those that do use it in a different way. Some use it as a way to unofficially gauge your credibility.

Ok, I am sure you’ve been wondering when I was going to tell you about how to achieve a ranking like I did. I went from a 0 Page Rank to a 5. Now, mind you, I did not purchase any links from high ranking sites, or any sites for that matter. I did not launch a link exchange program. I did exchange links with about five directories related to my site’s topic, but that was it. Actually, 97% of my links are all one-way links (links pointing to my site).

So, how did I do it? Any ideas? If you know SEO you may already know the answer.
Link Farms? Of, course not. We know Google will frown on that method. Did I design or optimize sites and add my URL? Hmmm..Yes! However, that is a small percent of the success. SEO companies don’t usually add their URL to sites they have optimized. Ok, so what else?

Content? Yes, content is king as always. Content is what was used to help boost my ranking. But how?

I create articles. These are quality articles, just like the one you are reading now. These articles were not generated from any program. I authored the content from my own knowledge and researched over 100 web sites that accept articles in my area of expertise. SEO happens to be a very popular topic. These sites agree to post my articles on their site, along with my url(s). Many of these sites have a decent Page Rank of their own. Their rank will transfer over to my site. Also, as time goes by, those articles will have a PR effect of their own which will transfer to my site(s). Don’t forget, other people may pick these articles up and use them on their site as well. They will also include my URL(s) on their sites. Now, if I do 100 sites a week times four articles a month, that’s at least 400 articles a month. The last Google update was 86 days, the longest has been 111. That could lead to 1200 or more links between updates. What will Google think about all these links at once? They’ll love it! Content, quality, one way links. I also promoted my blogs and my website in some of my articles. This way, they too have their own PR generating effect. They also link to my site and my site to them. This, in turn, increased the PR to them as well. At the time of this article and the most recent Google update, one of my blogs went from 0 to 3 and the other 0 to 4 all in the same update.

These tips should help you increase your page rank. The hardest part will be creating content related to your field and finding sites that will post your work. You can always hire writers and/or article submission services. Here’s to the next Google update. Cheers!

Joe is owner of http://www.mr-seo.com check out his site for a FREE SEO site Evaluation. You can read the latest SEO news on his blog http://mrseonewz.blogspot.com/ to read more of his articles visit http://mr-seo.blogspot.com/