Before you set out to march your way to the top of search rankings you'll need to take a good survey of the terrain ahead. You need to do a good amount of keyword research. Surprisingly, many webmasters seem to have stepped past this important starting point, and doing so has most definitely set obstacles, some impassable, in their path. Keyword research is the only way to approach SEO with informed expectations. How competitive are the keywords you are optimizing for? What keywords are you including in your link building efforts? What will it take to succeed? Answering these questions ahead of time makes all the difference.

Here are seven key tips for successful keyword research.

1. Use a proper tool.

Sure, there's a lot of free stuff available out there, but when it comes to keyword research free tools are few and far from powerful. If you're considering investing either money or time into SEO for your web site look at a solid keyword research tool as a necessity.

Some of the better keyword research tools:

a. SEOmoz's Keyword Difficulty Tool - this tool from one of the great SEO innovators gives you a good general idea of how competitive your keyword/phrase is.

b. Trellian's Keyword Discovery Tool - user-friendly, simple, and feature-rich. One of the best keyword research tools available.

c. WordTracker Keywords - second to none, WordTracker has been a leader in keyword research for years. A great value.

2. Identify viable targets.

We'd all love to rank well for the most general and all-encompassing search phrase related to our topic, but only a handful ever will. Targeting some ultra-competitive keywords is as good as shooting yourself in the foot unless you've got massive amounts of time and resources to throw at the problem.

Finding long-tail (three words and more) and targeted search phrases that are actually getting traffic can mean the difference between SEO success and failure. Be reasonable in your expectations, and fight the big guys by researching long-tail search phrases that have slipped beneath the radar. You might also find that long-tail search phrases bring better conversion rates for your topic.

3. Keep it relevant.

You may find keywords and phrases that offer inroads to high search rankings, but it's important to remember that the ultimate end is traffic and how you utilize it. In other words, you need to be sure your keywords relate to your web site. If you get a page to rank well enough to bring in some search traffic, but when users actually view that page they either can't make sense of the content or find the page unrelated to your topic (or worse - spammy) that search traffic will do you no good. Not only will off-topic or spammy content affect your brand and drive users from your site, but there's a chance Google could catch on to your irrelevant content or spammy techniques and penalize your domain for it.

4. Don't be too wordy.

No, really. A common mistake is to choose your keywords based on your own perspective rather than that of your target users. Sure, you know your topic inside and out. You know the buzz words, the technical details and a whole lot more, but do your users? What if the user isn't sure what they're looking for? Maybe they know the function but not the name. Keep this in mind when researching keywords, and make sure you consider your choices from the perspective of someone very new to your topic.

5. Consider local search.

One area small to mid-sized web sites can really find a competitive edge is in locally-specific search phrases. These are inherently less competitive and therefore are easier to rank well for. However, go back to #3 and think it through - if your web site is locally specific or if users will want to know your location this is a good strategy, but optimizing pages for local keywords that will look out of place to users can be a mistake.

6. Monitor your web analytics.

One of the great benefits of web analytics is that it allows you to monitor keyword referrals. In other words, you can find out what visitors are searching for when they land at your site. For brand new sites there won't be too much data, but if your site has been around at all and is getting some organic search traffic you will find that your analytics reports are a great source of keyword information. Referring search phrases can be surprising - sometimes including misspellings and other abnormalities. Keep an eye on your analytics, and you might find a keyword worth optimizing for.

7. Constantly reevaluate your position.

While keyword research is definitely the first step in developing your site content from an SEO standpoint it should also be a recurring one. Internet trends shift quickly. While a lot of your core keywords will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future some buzz words will get attention while others fall from the spotlight. Stay on top of your keyword research and you can make the most of new opportunities while recognizing the less-than-ideal keywords that are either too competitive or don't bring in enough traffic.

About the Author: Mike Tekula is the founder and Lead Strategist at Tek Web Solutions in New York and specializes in W3C Standards compliance, search engine optimization and generating increased web site traffic.

BY JEFFERSON GRAHAM
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

YAFFA BALSAM WAS mystified.

Why did so many other family therapy Web sites pop to the top of Google search results listings, while her site was nowhere to be found?

It's a question posed by thousands of small-business owners every day as they seek new customers online rather than through traditional Yellow Pages directories. These days, if a company Web site can't be found on Google, it basically doesn't exist.

"I've had my Web site up for a year, and as far as I know, I haven't found one new client from the Internet," says Balsam, 50, of Los Alamitos, Calif. "I want that to change."

USA Today asked Chris Winfield, president of Web site consultant 10e20, to look at Balsam's site, yourheartfeltsolutions.com, identify its weaknesses and offer tips on how to improve her rankings. His recommendations are instrumental for anyone with a Web site, as they are universal.

Winfield has three top tips for Balsam: Her site needs to be linked from other quality Web sites. She should have a clear Web site title. And she needs descriptive copy that includes the search terms (called keywords) that articulate how she wants to be discovered by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, he says.

"Keywords direct the search engines to how to find you," Winfield says. "And links are the holy grail. If a lot of sites link to you, that means you have authority and should be placed higher than others."

Balsam's front page was virtually devoid of text, beyond tabs for inside pages and contact information. Winfield says this is a huge no-no. Google's spider crawls the Internet compiling Web site information, looking to keywords on the page for how to reference the site.

In his analysis, Winfield wrote: "Add some good, descriptive text about you and your services that gently incorporates the one- or two-keyword phrases that you are concentrating on. For example: "Family therapy specialist in Orange & Los Angeles County — Yaffa Balsam MFT."

Winfield is what's known in the industry as a search-engine optimizer, or SEO. He helps small to midsize firms with their search-engine visibility. The tricks and tools to get sites to the top on Google and competitors Yahoo and MSN change daily. SEOs promise to do the work, while you run your business.

Winfield says most SEOs charge anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 monthly, doing everything from designing and redesigning sites to writing daily blog posts for clients.

The first step for many businesses is realizing exactly what their keywords should be. A house painter, for example, shouldn't use "house painting" as a keyword, because it's so broad. Instead, the painter might drill down to the more specific "interior house painting" or "exterior house painting."

Winfield directed Balsam to a free tool Google offers for keyword tips — https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. There, USA Today typed in Balsam's "Family Therapy" keyword, and found many variations, including "family therapist," "family marriage therapy" and "family therapy counseling."

These online keyword tools help Google's advertising clients, who buy sponsored pay-per-click links to guarantee good placement in the search results. But they are available, free, to everyone.

Many businesses also look to pay-per-click advertising to augment their Web exposure. Paying Google or other search engines helps assure that your business will be near the top of the sponsored listings. Advertising is also a great way to figure out which keywords potential clients are using to find you, Winfield says. Both Google and rival Yahoo offer tools to show which ads were clicked.

In designing a Web site, Winfield says, the most important keyword for a business should be on the site's title page (visible along the top of Internet Explorer or other web browsers). This is the first thing Google looks for when crawling the Web.

SEO is becoming increasingly important to all who look to do business and use the Internet as a marketing tool. It is the path in which your market finds your offering. It has become almost a necessity for businesses to incorporate SEO in to their marketing plan. Many companies struggle with the decision on whether to hire a firm or conduct their SEO in-house. Unfortunately many companies lack the knowledge about SEO and assume it will be cheaper for them in the long run to hire someone "in-house".

For some companies this may be efficient while others the overlooking the hiring of a professional firm to SEO can be costly. It is as critical to your business' health as if you were to feel that you could heal a fatal disease yourself because you have access to the Internet and books instead of going to a highly trained physician. Now you laugh and say that would be absurd, but is the growth of your company worth the risk.

Knowledge Versus Cost Versus Time = Your Success

SEO is an ever changing business. Search engines change their algorithm frequently and new rules are put into place. One has to have the resources to find this information and understand how to implement the changes. An SEO firm is more likely to be aware of changes to search engine optimization protocols than an in-house individual. Many in-house individuals will focus on developing and implementing your SEO strategies but typically remain in the dark about what goes on outside your organization.

Outsourced SEO professionals must perform these same functions while constantly studying the industry, staying current with changing trends and familiarizing themselves with the latest SEO techniques. It is a part of their day to day business and necessary if they intend to compete in the marketplace and wish to survive.

What about cost? Surely the cost of hiring an individual is substantially less than the cost of hiring a company, right? This is a common misconception. Let's look at it this way. You hire an E-Commerce Marketing Manager whose job is to develop and implements the strategic online marketing plan for an organization. Staying abreast of changes in the online marketing environment to best serve the objectives of the organization and adjusts plans accordingly. They may even be responsible for overseeing other aspects of the website such as the advertising and content components.

In most cases the individual will be wearing many hats spreading them thin. His or her base salary according to Salary.com on average would be $85,703. That is $7141.92 a month and roughly $42 an hour. This is for one individual with hopes that they bear positive results. Let's say they do not. It will take 3 to 6 months to start to truly see if the individual is an asset or not. That is $21,425.76 if you decide to let the individual go in just the third month. Not to include cost of taxes and benefits. And if successful, your company just paid $85,703 per year for SEO.

The average SEO firm charges anywhere from $5500 to $35000 to perform the same task with a staff of highly trained professionals in the area of link building, writing, optimizing, web development etc. Even on the high end you are getting a staff for the entire year for around what it cost you to hire an individual in-house for a quarter. And if it does not bear positive results and you decide to terminate the relationship you will only have lost less than $10,000 if prorated based on the $35000. in most cases you can even get some of that back. This logistically saves you time and money.

Would you agree that having one individual do the job of five is rarely a good idea? Would you feel it cost effective?

Time is another concern with in-house SEO. Will one individual be able to optimize multiple pages, write content, tags, build links, run reports and perform other SEO tasks in a timely fashion? One person can only do so much. Would you agree that time is money? Most SEO firms can do in a matter of days what might take an individual weeks to do. Many companies who use in-house SEO personnel spend more than necessary to get the same amount of work done in a longer amount of time. Once again you have one individual doing many task versus many individuals doing one task effectively.

In any case, is outsourcing the right move for you or your company? Whether you choose to outsource or not, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Do your research by performing a simple cost/benefit analysis on what outsourcing versus in-house SEO will cost. It cost twice as much when you do it wrong the first time.

Results are all that matters. Top rankings for phrases no one is searching for means little, and shouldn't be used as a guage of someone's abilities. Ensure they can provide you with keywords that work for your business as well as a diverse plan of action. What do others say about the company or individual? Ask for references and check them. But even if they have limited or no reference don't panic. They still may know what they are doing. Just test them on a small project and see if they bear results for you. This is a true way to measure if they work for you. There are many variables you may not have privilege to in a reference such as their personal relationship or if they were a part of a team that was successful but they contributed little.

Remember, SEO is important to your business growth and time is money one way or another. Do the math and ask yourself what makes sense for you.

Hope this was a good read

Making sure that your websites are fully crawlable is a key component for any search strategy, especially if you want your sites to rank well for multiple related keyword phrases or different products.

One of the ways that you can insure that a search engine spider crawls your site deeply is to provide it a road map of your site. This road map, called a "site map" is a very simple page (from a design standpoint) that only serves one purpose from a search engine optimizers point of view, to get those interior pages into a search engine's index.

A brief history of site maps . . .

Before site maps were recognized by the search engine optimization community as a tool for good search results, it was used by fortune 1000 companies to help visitors to their site find out where a particular service or product was located.

For example: If you want to do some sort of business with your bank online, you might find that their home page doesn't quite get you to the exact location on their site that you want.

After all, a typical bank might offer car loans, student loans, home loans, credit cards, investment accounts, mutual funds, etc.

If per chance you arrived at this banking site on a page other than the home page, you might get a little turned around from a site navigation standpoint.

So, site maps were created.

What is a site map?

A site map is a page that contains a basic HTML link to every page on that web site. Every page, not just your main topics but every page.

Site maps do not need to be fancy (in fact, it's better if they are not), they just need to contain a logical order and links to all of your pages.

How does this benefit us? Three ways . . .

First, a site map gives your customers an easy navigation system to every page in your web site. Now, don't confuse the use of a site map as a replacement for logical navigation on your regular pages. You want to make sure that your site can be navigated simply and easily from any page on your site.

However, some folks (a very small percentage) prefer to see the entire site's structure on one page and choose their destination from it.

Second, a site map is a fantastic way to get a search engine spider to see and crawl every single page in your site. When optimizing different pages in your web site for different keywords, a Site map is a perfect solution for ensuring that a spider can get to every one of those optimized pages.

Third, and this is big: A Site Map provides an opportunity to send link reputation to a particular page. Now, link reputation is a discussion that's beyond the scope of this aricle, but it is perhaps one of the most important factors in off Page search engine optimization.

You want the links on your Site Map Page to Say the right thing about the pages that they are linking to. It's like a vote. So, make sure that your site map is voting correctly for all of your interior pages.

Fourth, site maps are also an additional way to distribute Google page rank. If your site map is just one link off of the first page, it can pass a significant amount of Google page rank deep into your web site. This helps create a site structure where just about every internal page has the same chance of ranking as well as your home page.

Finally, site maps allow you to use dynamic linking strategies to control where page rank does and does not go throughout your site.

For example, a common mistake is to have a normal link to your privacy policy on every page of your site. In actuality, giving your privacy policy page the same page rank as every other page of the site is a big waste of whatever page rank you have available.

So use a good site map and you will reap the rewards.

Does a business really need both organic, natural search (that is, the regular search engine results) as well as paid search (that is, pay per click, PPC ads)? The answer for most businesses is: Yes.

Let's compare these two forms of advertising -- for, indeed, we must consider the both forms of advertising.

Â	Organic Search	Paid Search
Position on the page	More visible	Less visible on right side, except ads that appear above natural search results
Speed of results	Several months	Several days
Trust level	Moderate	A bit less trust -- if searchers can actually tell the difference between a paid ad and natural search results
Difficulty of getting top positions	Can be difficult	Usually fairly easy -- if you're willing to bid high enough
Traffic volume	Depends on position for various keywords	Can be high for all important keywords
Cost	Very low	Moderate to high

Many novice marketers avoid using PPC ads because they're afraid it will cost too much. But in fact, PPC ads may be the only way you'll get any decent traffic to your site at all, unless you (a) have a rather non-competitive business or (b) have optimized your website to rank high in natural search for the keywords important to you. The big advantage of PPC advertising is that you can get up-to-speed within a few days -- the time it takes the editors at Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing to approve your ads and keywords. Paid search may help you to generate a sufficient volume of traffic and sales to provide enough revenue to support your business.

Should you rely on paid search entirely? No! Outsourcing search engine optimization (SEO) begins at about $1,500 for the first few months and goes up to $10,000 per month or more, depending on the size of your site and competition for your keywords. But when you compare $1,500 for SEO to the $1,500 or $3,000 or more you may spend each month on paid search, SEO emerges a huge bargain. Typically, natural search generates low to moderate traffic at a very low cost. Paid search generates moderate to high traffic for moderate to high cost. Together, natural search helps bring down your average cost per sale to a point that you can still make money.

Are there situations in which you shouldn't use paid search at all? Yes.

• If your products are priced too low -- or you are trying to drive traffic through your affiliate site -- you may not break even with PPC.
• If your landing pages aren't optimized to get a high enough conversion rate, PPC will appear much too expensive.
• If you are at or near the top of the natural search results for most of the important keywords, PPC traffic may not bring that many additional sales.

However, the only way you'll know whether or not paid search will help build your business is to give it a fair test for two or three months. It may take several weeks to get your ads and keywords working optimally. If you haven't used split-testing software to optimize your landing pages, your results won't give you a true picture. (See my books How to Optimize Your Landing Pages Scientifically and How to Develop a Landing Page that Closes the Sale). But if you've followed best practices in setting up and running a paid search campaign and you're still not getting the results you need to be profitable after two to three months, then and only then is it time to pull the plug.

Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Wilson Internet, Rocklin, CA

Search Engine Rankings. Everyone wants to be number one, and there are millions of web sites out there. So how do you become number one and stay there consistently? Consistently is the key word here. Sure, you may apply the newest, best trick in the book today, but when someone else comes out with a better one tomorrow, you will be scrambling to get to the top again.

I think one of the keys is to be well-rounded. There are many books and philosophies about web rankings that are floating around. Some people say article marketing is the way to go, others link building, others say you have to maximize your web pages for the search engines. You have to get all your keywords right and your titles and description. But what happens when another web site does you one better in that area? Now you drop in rank. Therefore, I think it is more important that you do a good job in all the areas than to be the very best in one area. And I think it is OK to be number 8 or number 3 in rank, also. If you are in the very top spot and you are clicked simply because the top spot gets more clicks, are you really going to get more sales just because you are number one? Your product and site have to be relevant to the consumer, not just the search engine.

Another key is to focus on very specific keywords. You can do an awesome job in every area of search engine optimization, but if you go too thin here, you will not make it to number one in any of your keywords. Focus on one, or at the most, two keywords. Build your site around those keywords. Be everything you can be to someone who keys in those keywords. Or better yet, one keyword. Would you rather have one keyword that has a number one placement, or 8 keywords with a number 40 placement each? To me, number 40 is like number 1 million-you don't get enough clicks to pay the bills. I would far rather have one keyword for which my site is on the first page of results than twenty that are all over the place. Build yourself a web site that has a strong keyword density-for one or two keywords. Put those keywords in your title and description and keyword lists.

You must have incoming links.
You must have quality incoming links.
You must build incoming links one link at a time.

Links are very important, but you cannot cheat in this area. You must build them one by one. My two favorite methods of link building is to write articles, like this one, and submit them to article directories, and to be included in link directories. Stay away from link farms, large link exchanges, or anything of the sort. The major search engines want to see you build a steady supply of links over time. What do you think a search engine will do for you when you go from 0 links to 3000 in one day? That won't get you to number one, and certainly won't keep you there, when you are put in the sandbox for six months.

These keys to search engine optimization are just a beginning. You need traffic, you need click-thrus in the search engine results. You need visitors to stay at your site for more than a few seconds when they click in. How do you get that? Build real content. Build it for people, not machines--while following the first three keys. Do that, and I believe that in three to six months you will have each web site you set up with this strategy, in the top ten for your keyword.

Many SEOs quickly learn why they need a linking strategy. They know now that links from other web sites pointing at theirs are improving their page ranking. Let's see how links generate traffic.

Inbound links are an important way to increase the page rank, to be known in your field, to generate traffic to the website. This is the most important method to generate traffic, to have more visitors, potential clients or website services' users.

Without traffic, a website is almost useless. Its role can be only a name on a business card or a place to find a products or services list or email addresses.

To bring clients from the Internet, to be alive, to fulfill its main purpose, a web site must have huge traffic. What can a search engine optimizer do to get this important traffic? The web content including the appropriate keywords, the ease navigation, the most appropriate images, the inspired headlines are improving the traffic.

Do not forget the site's style, sophisticated and simple at the same time, professional and efficient. But the work isn't over yet. The inbound links strategy must be used too. It brings spectacular results and realizes the traffic that will attire the clients' attention. The search engines will note the web site.

Some will think that without traffic, a web site is useless as a marketing and selling tool. The web site will not sell products or services, nor communicate ideas or events, and won't publish articles about any imaginable subject.

As we have already established, the traffic will be increased in the most spectacular way by getting links from other important websites, and having related topics. You will receive direct traffic from links, but mainly from links that have similar audiences to the main website.

A client visiting a web site similar to the main one, seeing the link to the main one, will visit it immediately. He becomes a potential client, increases the traffic, and improve, finally, the main site's rank. 21% of the entire traffic is the result of inbound links. This is not a secret, top ranked web sites are using this successful strategy and everyone can see the results.

What is the reason why people are clicking the new links? First of all, this is the human curiosity in action. Maybe the next site can have more products, best prices, most appropriate services.

Maybe the next site is looking better and it is giving to its visitors the look and feel they are waiting for, maybe the next site is more useful, interesting and helpful. The visitors, potential clients at the same time, are hoping to find something to amaze them, to make them purchase without regrets and doubts.

Part of your linking strategy is joining a linking directory. You will need to do a search for these websites with a high PR. In these directories, you will have great success because they are where the strong, relevant websites are. To start linking your websites to higher ranked sites, go to: http://www.MyLinkMachine.com.

Another part of your linking strategy should be to include your link in articles that you submit to article directories. This will help you out a lot because if a reader is interested in your article, chances are that they will click on your link to learn more. A great site to submit your articles is: http://www.MyContentBuilder.com.

If you are submitting articles and are looking for a faster and easier way to do this, you might want to consider an automatic article submitter. To watch a video on how to accomplish this, go to: http://1trac.com/dt/t/Article_Submitter_Video.php.

About the Author: Karianne Kline is a Graphic Design student currently attaining her Associate's Degree. She is also learning the other end of the spectrum in Marketing and SEO. You can learn more about what she does by visiting http://www.LazyLinking.com.

The Four E’s of a Successful Pay-per-Click Advertising Program

By Kent Lewis (Anvil Media, Inc.)

The good news: you can setup and manage a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising program on Google, Yahoo! or MSN within minutes. The bad news: you can setup and manage a PPC advertising program within minutes. That means anyone can set up a PPC program, which has led to higher overall cost, lower click-through rates and conversions. There is hope, however.

The fundamental concepts behind Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are understood by most search engine marketers, but those new to the subject should find this article to be very useful. Informative articles on various aspects of SEO have been published here on MarketPosition.com over the years, and in this post I will summarize these concepts and provide links to relevant articles.

While almost anyone can have a web site these days it's much harder to have a good website. From design aspects to readable content many sites fall flat. Below I've arranged a Top 10 list, because everyone loves a Top 10!

Include a detailed About Us page
The About Us page is a good place for new visitors and target traffic to find out who you are, why they should read your content or buy your products, how valuable your site can be, and also general information about your company, web site, or you.

It's a good idea to include contact information or at least a clear link to your Contact Us page. Keep concise and accurate. People want to read about you but they don't want a novel. Add important information on this page and point them to other pages for more in depth coverage.

Include a Contact Us page
Visitors (shoppers, target traffic) need an easy way to get in touch. Have a clearly marked link for contact information and include every avenue you receive communication through. Telephone and fax numbers (both local and 800), e-mail addresses, physical addresses, etc. all should appear on this page.

To help navigate further, clearly indicate which contacts go where (i.e. Admin, Tech, Sales, etc.) This will decrease frustration on both ends and allow better communication to flow. You want to show your visitors that you are competent and friendly, being easy to contact is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal.

Add a News, Press Release, Blog, and/or Articles Page
These pages inform customers of current events, products, endorsements, and other company happenings all in one place. Make sure to maintain these pages with fresh content that is reader friendly so your target traffic is more likely to come back, bookmark your page, and they may even provide word-of-mouth advertising. Free advertising!

As a bonus, search engines love these types of pages. New, fresh, relevant content is the stuff of search engines (well, there's obviously more to it than just content). Each time a search engine spider crawls your site and find new content it ups your chances of ranking higher in the organic search listings. More free advertising!

A Relevant Page Title
As uninteresting as this may sound your page title holds a lot of weight. If you're unfamiliar with a page title it is the name appearing in the blue bar across the top of the page. If your says something like "Untitled Document" I'm talking to you.

Page titles should be different for every page in your site. They should clearly and accurately describe your page, and you should try to use keywords in the page title.

Search engines display the title of your page on SERPs. The catchier and more accurate your title the better the chance you'll hit target traffic.

A Relevant Page Name
Again, not so interesting as flashy designs or up-to-the-minute content, but it's a necessity to get your target traffic to your page to see or read the goods.

It's better to have straightforward page name showing in the URL than names with ? or other symbols and numbers. For example, a search engine will go to www.yourdomain.com/about us.htm it will only go to the ? in www.yourdomain.com/aboutus?094837 . You want search engines to find your pages. You also want humans to be able to read your names. Keep it simple and clean.

Good Grammar, Correct Spelling, Complete Thoughts, Sentence Structure
Everything you were supposed to learn in grade school, use it now. Not only should your site have relevant content - the more the better - people should be able to read your content. Choppy or runon sentences that seem to go nowhere cannot provide the type of readership concise, correct sentences can.

Misspellings, wrong word usage, bad grammar are all distractions. You do not want to distract your readers, you want to captivate them. Slang and derogatory language also distracts. If your site is a business site avoid slang and offensive language all together - unless that's your selling point. Jargon is different, just don't confuse readers more than necessary.

If you aren't in command of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. or if you'd rather focus your efforts elsewhere, that's fine. It's a good idea to beg, plead, hire, or force someone else to take care of this part then as ignoring the problem won't make it go away though it may have that effect on site traffic.

Professional Design, Colors, and Images
Design should be implemented with usability in mind. Not all visitors will be as web savvy as you'd like, create easy navigation and links to all your pages. A search bar for your site is also a good idea.

Colors should be inviting, not blinding. Use colors to emphasize your brand, product or content. Don't overpower the visitor with colors. Use colors to make text pop without being distracting or hard to read.

Images should be friendly and relevant to your site. Images of people work better than objects and clip art rarely has a positive effect. Make sure your images can load within a reasonable amount of time, you don't want to lose visitors because a single image caused an incredible amount of load time, or worse froze the visitors browser.

Make Sure ALL Links Are Working Links
This should be a no-brainer, however it is always a good idea to check and double check your links. Fix any broken links A.S.A.P. Your reputation counts on it.

Think of any site you've been to with a broken link. Disappointing isn't it? You probably left or at least had a negative image about the company. Avoid this mistake and check, recheck, and check your links again.

Use Your Log Files
Log files offer a plethora of information on your web site, your visitors, what works and what doesn't. You can't afford to miss out on this information - if you can afford it you shouldn't anyway.

Best idea: Get a program that converts the lengthy text into readable documentation. It'll save you time and energy while getting you the information you desire. Log files will describe customer behavior, they will show you broken links, and you'll see where customers flow freely and where they abandon the site. The invaluable information is at your finger tips. Use it!

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificates
These can be used on any site asking for sensitive information. Not every web site needs this, however if you plan to collect any visitor information it is a good idea to have some SSL pages. Though not every page need be SSL.

Pages requiring e-mail, names, telephone numbers, addresses, credit card information, social security information or any other information visitors may not readily be giving up online should be securely collected via SSL.

About the Author: Kristen Owen, CEO of ContentWorth has written quality, unique articles for years. For information on articles and other services please email Kristen.

When you are creating advertising design for the newspaper, magazine or direct mail, what do you think might be one of the most important considerations?

If you answered readability, congratulate yourself! Fancy graphics may get the ad noticed, but readers must be able physically to read the words. This elementary concept sounds simple enough, yet is often ignored. If they can't read it, they can't understand enough about your offer to respond.

With todays' sophisticated and virtually unlimited graphic computer options, it is easy for the graphic design advertising person to get sidetracked into believing what is on the screen looks like a true work of art!

Here are some advertising design questions to ask:

1. Want your ad to look different?
Examine a few past issues of the publication where your ad will be appearing. Often publications create ads themselves ("pub-set") and they can tend to look similar. See if you can spot them. Then try to develop a graphic look different than the other ads. Set your ad apart by using a different type face family that is easily read.

2. Is the advertisement legible?
In their desire to be different and stylish, some of todays' magazines make reading difficult.

Here are some common problems. White type on a light pastel background. Or light pastel type on a slightly darker background of the same color. Or colors that don't contrast well when viewed in black and white, such as dark forest green type printed on a background of fire engine red.

It is better to go for the headline in big, lighter type against a much darker background.

3. Trying to cram too much information into a small space?
One of the big problems is trying to fit too many words and concepts into a small space.

Here is where small space is actually your friend. It forces you (or the writer) to break down your ideas into simple words and simple concepts. Bear in mind that the goal of many advertisements is to solicit an inquiry, not to tell the entire story.

Often readers look to the details to figure out if they want to act. The type showing those details should be large enough to see and comprehend, even for those who have trouble with their vision. Type in color really needs to be 10 point, if not 11 to be read by the entire population.

With black and white newspaper ads, it is possible to use typefaces as small as 8 point because their comprehension is made easier by black type on newsprint. In magazines, black type as small as 4 points (on a white background) has been used. The clarity is astounding, but many people need a magnifying glass!

In conclusion, ignoring these three considerations can spell disaster for the reader who is trying to understand the advertising message. Good advertising design creates graphic effects that enhance the writers' words and contribute to the overall success of the ad.

About the Author: Jon Sinish is a 30-year champion of advertising for small businesses, whose clients range from international corporations to private professional practices. Explore www.advertising-for-small-businesses.com to discover over 25 more articles that reveal practical tips, tactics and strategies to help the small businessperson manage and improve their advertising and marketing programs.

By Curtis Friedl

As mentioned in a previous MarketPosition article, MSN announced their support for two new tags that can be entered into the header of your html documents. Using these tags will indicate to MSN that you prefer your own site's title and description information rather then the use of the Open Directory header information that it may currently be using.

For those of you who do a lot of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, this is "old hat," but for some of you, this is your next step in online promotion. I've been immersed with PPC advertising over the last few weeks -- partly to increase my understanding of PPC Bid Management Software. Here's the first in a series that walks you through some of the bidding strategies of a PPC campaign.

Before I begin, let me touch on the basics. By the way, I'm using "keywords," "keyphrases," and "search terms" synonymously. Bidding on a keyword (such as in the area of mustang horses) means that:

1. Display. You instruct Google AdWords to display your ad when a searcher puts in certain keywords that you specify (such as "mustang corral" or "mustang roundup"). These ads show up at the top or right side of the "natural" search results under the heading "Sponsored Links." They have no effect on "natural" search ranking for your site.
2. Rank Order. The amount you bid will determine your ad's position above or below other ads. If you place a maximum bid of 10¢ and your competitor bids 11¢, he has outbid you and his ad appears above yours (all other things being equal).
3. Cost Per Click. You only pay when your ad is clicked on. Your ad could have been displayed 42 times, but if it is only clicked on 4 times, you would owe 4 x 10¢ = 40¢.

It's more complex than that, of course, but hopefully these three principles will introduce you to PPC advertising. Now let's explore a couple of strategies.

Bid on a Large Number of Keywords. The key to success in many PPC campaigns is to bid on hundreds of keywords, not just the ones with the most traffic. The high-traffic (and higher-priced) keywords may generate a lot of the traffic. The rest -- preferably 50% to 70% -- will come from the "long tail" of obscure keywords that get only a few searches and fewer click-throughs. But since there's so little competition for these, a bid may be only a few cents. Some of these infrequent keywords may eventually be disqualified by Google, but those low-priced "tail" words that remain will help balance out the higher cost of the high-traffic keywords. You can build a list of appropriate keywords by doing research at Wordtracker (www.wilsonweb.com/afd/wordtracker.htm) for about $8 per day.

Negative Keywords. Use negative keywords so that your ad isn't displayed at all for searches that have nothing to do with your products or services. For example, if you're advertising "mustangs" you'll probably want to have a list of negative keywords, such as:

-Ford
-car
-auto
-P-51
-shelby
-cobra

You get the idea. If any of these negative words is included in a person's search phrase, your ad for mustang horses won't even be displayed. Incidentally, negative keywords work in Google AdWords, but not for all PPC search engines.

I'll stop there for today and pick this up again soon with more PPC campaign strategies. To learn more about advertising with Google AdWords I recommend Andrew Goodman's comprehensive book Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2005, ISBN 0072257024, 352 pages, paperback).
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Anyone who has developed a website hoping to quickly achieve a high ranking in the search engines, especially Google, has probably discovered that the task is much more daunting than they originally thought. That is because new websites and even existing websites must prove to Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other search engines that they are worthy of being ranked high.

There are many factors involved in getting a website ranked high in the search engines, including good, relevant content that gives visitors the information they are searching for along with strong link popularity.

What Exactly is Link Popularity?
Many people think link popularity equates to the number of incoming links a website has linking to it. In other words, how many other websites are linking to your website.

But, link popularity is much more than just the number of incoming links you have coming to your website. Factors can include, but are not limited to, the quality and type of website linking to you, whether you link back to that website or not, the reputation of the website linking to you, and if it appears that you paid for the link or not. And Google has just made the distinction between quality links vs. non-quality links even more pronounced with their latest algorithm update.

On a very simplistic level, a website's link popularity is designed to increase as the number of other websites linking to your website increases. Google's original inspiration with this concept was based on the fact that Google believes if other websites were linking to your website, you must have something good to link to. In other words, others are giving your website a vote of confidence.

However, as in all aspects of Search Engine Marketing, website owners and SEO specialists found ways to manipulate Google's Page Rank (Google's indicator of your link popularity.) Many website owners actively seek other websites that will "exchange" a link with them. "If you link to me, I'll link to you." So many times the links are completely irrelevant to the content on the two sites. The reciprocal link arrangements are simply established in order to try to increase their link popularity and thereby their Google Page Rank. There have been entire businesses built on helping websites exchange links with each other to boost their Google Page Rank.

Of course Google is not blind to this manipulation of their algorithm. So it goes without saying that they would eventually figure out a way to help stop, or at least minimize the abuse of their link popularity approach to ranking websites.

How Does this Affect My Site?
Google has adjusted and refined their Page Rank algorithm many times in the last few years. After the latest algorithm update you can pretty much count on your reciprocal links being discounted or completely ignored. Links that have been "bought" on other websites have also been discounted, so I wouldn't bother spending the money if someone tries to sell you a link on their website to link back to your website. (The main exceptions to this statement are quality directories that charge to be submitted and added to their directory. Most quality directories are normally worth the money they charge due to the benefits you receive from the directory listing.)

"Run of the site" links are also being discounted or ignored by Google. Those are links that someone puts on every page of their site to your website to make it appear that there are a lot of pages linking to your site. Again, you're better off just having one link to your site from a page that does not have a lot of other outgoing links on it as opposed to having a link from every page on another person's website.

Get Quality Incoming Links
So how can you increase your link popularity and thereby your Google Page Rank? You'll need to do it the old fashioned way - by developing a website that people want to visit and link to. Of course, there are also some good opportunities to help people (and Google) find your website so they can have the opportunity to find out just how good it is. Press releases, articles, and quality directories all provide excellent opportunities for strong incoming links to your website.

If your press release catches others attention, you can receive some strong incoming links each time you submit a newsworthy item. Just make sure you really have something to talk about in your press release or it will be ignored.

Articles help to not only build quality content on your site, but you can submit your articles to a variety of article directories that allow others to find what you have written and link to your site as an expert on a particular subject.

Quality directories not only provide good links back to your site but they can also land you a high ranking in a search engine results page. There have been many instances where a website may not be listed on the first page of Google for a search, but the directory listing for that website is listed on the first page. Having that high ranking in the directory is certainly better than no ranking at all! In the end, it's all about bringing visitors to your website when they are searching for your products for services. And directories can help bring you that traffic.

So, bottom line, you can help boost the rankings of your website through good, quality content coupled with a strong link popularity which you can obtain naturally through your online press releases, articles and quality directory submissions. It takes time for a website to build a good reputation in the search engines, but the long-term benefits are worth the time and effort. Trying to achieve high rankings through questionable practices and shortcuts can work for a while but it will almost always come back to haunt you once your tactics are discovered by the search engines and your site is penalized or removed.

About the Author: Matthew James is an Internet Marketing expert with over 6 years of experience in search engine optimization, pay-per-click services, keyword research, quality link building concepts, and website marketing strategies.