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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION SUMMARY
Search Engine Optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, is the process of selecting specific
keywords or phrases that are related to a website, and using these keywords/phrases to ensure that
your website ranks high in the search results of a search engine (such as Google).
The foundation of SEO begins with bringing "traffic" to your website. Traffic, defined here as
those individuals who are actively searching online for a specific product and/or information at
any given time, is the key to running a successful and lucrative online business. It is important
to note, however, that "general traffic" (i.e., individuals who have no interest in your product)
will not generate business – only targeted individuals will generate business.
This is where "keywords" come in: keywords are those words or phrases that best describe the
products you are offering on your website; keywords are exactly what your future customer is
searching for at this very moment. If your customer is searching for 'real estate,' for example,
you might choose the keywords 'condos,' 'homes for sale,' 'oceanfront property,' etc.
NOTE: The real beauty of keywords comes in when you start what is called a Reciprocal
Link Exchange Program. This is a system by which you exchange a textual hyperlink with another
website that relates to your website or target industry, in order to increase your ranking on a
search engine result page. Following a Reciprocal Link Strategy will help to increase your Search
Engine popularity over time for the keyword/phrase of your choice; because you will be allowing other
websites to post your link on their site and vice versa, Google (as well as other search engines),
will grant your site a better, more relevant rating for the keywords and phrases you have chosen.
It is important to note, however, that when a person hyperlinks from a foreign website BACK to your
website, a specific keyword MUST be used (this is known as the "anchor text") in order for the
Reciprocal Link Strategy to work. If you do not use the anchor text, you will not increase your
ranking within the search engine.
The next step in the process is coming up with the best keywords possible, so as to direct the
best possible clientele to your website. One place to start would be the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool:
(http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/). It is important to note, however,
that this is only a starting place; Overture can often produce "over-inflated" results.
You can also pay to use WordTracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/) the first 15 results
are free. You can also go to
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal to generate free keywords and get an idea of
which keywords are searched most frequently.
It never hurts, of course, to find keywords in a thesaurus or on an online forum. Just remember
to always ask yourself if the keyword or phrase relates to the product you are trying to sell,
to the service you are offering your clients, or to your website; if the keyword is only a
partial match, then do not use it.
The way to figure out how long it is going to take you to get to the top of the search engine
result page is to type in your choice keyword/phrase in Google and see how many pages come up
with the exact keyword listed. If 1,000,000+ sites are listed, you could be faced with six months
to a year of work to get to the top of the list. In this event, it might help to start with a
less-used keyword that only generates 5000-60,000 sites.
Now it is time to build a Reciprocal Link Directory, which will assist you in building your
Reciprocal Link Exchange Program. To get an idea of how to do this, go to
http://www.build-reciporcal-links.com.
Find about 10-30 categories that fit with your website's theme and try to avoid any irrelevant
categories; doing so will maintain your ranking on the search engines. In order to get ideas for this
directory, go to www.about.com . You can also get ideas by going to Google by typing in the name of
your industry along with the words "link directory," "link exchange," or "resource directory."
* * *
The key to having success with
Reciprocal Linking is to use the keyword and/or phrase as the hyperlink (otherwise known
as the "anchor text")
Example HTML: <a href = "http://www.yourdomain.com">keyword phrase</a>
The beauty of this system is to place a keyword/phrase hyperlink on the back-end of a URL that
points directly back to your website.
* * *
Now it is time to write the Reciprocal Link Text that will accompany your Reciprocal Link itself.
This is the text that customers will see when they link from foreign websites to your website.
So you want it to be short, sweet, and relevant. McDonalds, for example, might write,
"McDonalds: Big Mac, ˝ off Fridays!"
You can either create a link by doing it manually at
http://www.citymax.com/hp/doc/179.htm?url
or by using software such as Reciprocal Manager: http://reciprocalmanager.com/?hop=letstalk.
Once you have written your Reciprocal Link Text, you now have to begin emailing other web managers
whose websites have content that is relevant to your own. The purpose of this task is to ask them
if you can exchange links, hence the ‘reciprocal’ nature of the program. Do not choose sites that
compete with your product and do not send a request to the same site twice (assuming you have
received a response). In order to improve your chances of not being deleted out of a web manager's
Inbox, you might want to edit the Subject of your email to read something as follows: "[Site name]
would like to exchange hyperlinks…"
Once you have a number of partners, make sure you keep track of them in any way you choose, and then
start the whole process again by choosing a new keyword or phrase. This will allow you to
continually grow your business.
Best of Luck,
The Team at Monster PPC
IMPORTANT NOTES:
In order to avoid being kicked off of any search engines, do not used automated software that
promises to increase your website traffic by creating keyword generated HTML pages that attract
search engines so you can get high ratings this just creates blank pages that will end up getting
you banned from the search engines.
In order to check how many sites a website is linked to, you can go to Google and type in the
following in the search box: "link: www.[domain name].com".
Information about Web Rankings:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34432&topic=8524
IMPORTANT TERMS:
| URL: |
Uniform Resource Locator; provides a means of locating a resource [i.e., the website]
by describing its primary access mechanism (e.g., its network location.)
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| SEO: |
Search Engine Optimization; the process of selecting specific keywords or phrases
that are related to a website, which will in turn be used to ensure that your website
ranks high in the search results of a search engine (such as Google).
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| Traffic: |
Sometimes referred to as "web traffic," traffic refers to the amount of data sent and
received by a website. This is determined by the number of visitors and the number of
pages they visit.
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| Keywords: |
Keywords are those words or phrases that best describe the products you are offering
on your website; keywords are exactly what your future customer is searching for at
this very moment.
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| Reciprocal Link Exchange Program: |
This is a system by which you exchange a textual hyperlink with another website that
relates to your website or target industry, in order to increase your ranking on a
search engine result page.
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| Hyperlink: |
A hyperlink, or link, is a reference or navigation element in a document and/or
website that links to another section of the same document/website OR another
document/website, and it automatically brings the referred information to the user
when the user selects the navigation element.
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| Anchor Text: |
Anchor text is the visible text in a hyperlink. It is weighted (ranked) in search engine
algorithms, because the linked text is usually relevant to the landing page. The objective
of search engines is to provide highly relevant search results; this is where anchor text
helps, as the tendency is, more often than not, to hyperlink words relevant to the landing page.
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| Backlinks: |
Backlinks are incoming links to a website or webpage. They enable you to keep track
of other pages on the web that link to your posts. The number of backlinks is an indication
of the popularity or importance of that website or page.
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Click here to learn more about SEO. »»
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