SEO Automatic

You heard it here first.

Within 3 years, almost anyone will be able to perform search engine optimization (SEO) to their site.

It will all be done through a back-end content management system (CMS) - and it will be easy and fast working.

But, it doesn't mean it't the end of the world for optimization service s.

While a properly optimized site is nice to have, if no one finds it, that won't matter. Expect to see more companies offer search engine Marketing as the premiere service , as that is more time intense anyways.

How can this be? Let's take a trip back to 1995.

You remember: blinking text, huge jpeg graphics, dial-up and AOL was all the rage. Back then, it was believed that all you needed was a website, and you could become an Internet millionaire. While that was true for a few lucky people, for the rest of us it was still the same old grind. But the, the emergence of template editors arrived. MicroSoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and others appeared making the creation of a website fairly easy.

Once the online world realized they could create their own sites , they next wanted the ability to edit their sites . Thus, the birth of CMS became a reality and many web design shops found themselves scrambling to offer thses back-end modules or service s to their clients.

Today, people expect to have a website that they can edit, which brings us to SEO. There are many properties within a site that can be generated with a CMS system. For example:

* Meta Tags
* Page Titles
* Page Names
* site Maps
* CSS Stylization

If the web administrator knows the simple basics of SEO, they can easily apply those values to all the pages any CMS system creates.

I know this is coming because I've built these exact systems for clients. Once a client learns the importance of proper naming stuctures, and the best way to naturally place their keyphrases into all parts of their website, they are already two steps ahead of their competition.

search engine optimization is still a valuable way to earn money, but as more people integrate the Internet with their lives, they will become knowlegeable enough to perform those tasks on their own.

The next step will be the automation of SEM, which I still think is only about 5 years away...

Readmore → SEO Automatic

Things You Need to Know Before optimizing Your site

One of the most important aspects of a Search Engine optimization project is also one of the most overlooked – preparation! There are some important steps to take in advance of optimizing your site that will make sure your SEO is successful.

Before You Start

Before you start any Search Engine optimization campaign, whether it’s for your own site or that belonging to a client, you need to answer the following questions:

1) What is the overall motivation for optimizing this site? What do I/they hope to achieve? e.g. more sales, more subscribers, more traffic, more publicity etc.

2) What is the time-frame for this project?

3) What is the budget for this project?

4) Who will be responsible for this project? Will it be a joint or solo effort? Will it be run entirely in-house or outsourced?

Answering these questions will help you to build a framework for your SEO project and establish limitations for the size and scope of the campaign.


Get Ready: How Search -Compatible is the site Currently?

Something I find very useful before quoting on any SEO project is to produce what I call a Search Engine Compatibility Review. This is where I carry out a detailed overview and analysis of a site's Search Engine compatibility in terms of HTML design, page extensions, link popularity, title and META tags, body text, target keywords, ALT IMG tags, page load time and other design elements that can impact Search Engine indexing.

I then provide a detailed report to potential clients with recommendations based on my findings. It just helps sort out in my mind what design elements need tweaking to make the site as Search Engine-friendly as possible. It also helps marketing staff prove to an often stubborn programming department (or vice versa!) that SEO is necessary. You might consider preparing something similar for your own site or clients.


Get Set: Requirements Gathering

Next, you need to establish the project requirements, so you can tailor the SEO campaign to you or your client’s exact needs. For those of you servicing clients, this information is often required before you are able to quote accurately.

To determine your project requirements, you need to have the following questions answered:

1) What technology was used to build the site? (i.e. Flash, PHP, frames, Cold Fusion, JavaScript, Flat HTML etc)

2) What are the file extensions of the pages? (i.e. .htm, .php, .cfm etc)

3) Does the site contain database driven content? If so, will the URLs contain query strings? e.g. www.site.com/longpagename?source=123444fgge3212, (containing “?� symbols), or does the site use parameter workarounds to remove the query strings? (the latter is more Search Engine friendly).

4) Are there at least 250 words of text on the home page and other pages to be optimized?

5) How does the navigation work? Does it use text links or graphical links or JavaScript drop-down menus?

6) Approximately how many pages does the site contain? How many of these will be optimized?

7) Does the site have a site map or will it require one? Does the site have an XML sitemap submitted to Google sitemaps?

8) What is the current link popularity of the site?

9) What is the approximate Google Pagerank of the site? Would it benefit from link building?

10) Do I have the ability to edit the source code directly? Or will I need to hand-over the optimized code to programmers for integration?

11) Do I have permission to alter the visible content of the site?

12) What are the products/services that the site promotes? (e.g. widgets, mobile phones, hire cars etc.)

13) What are the site’s geographical target markets? Are they global? Country specific? State specific? Town specific?

14) What are the site’s demographic target markets? (e.g. young urban females, working mothers, single parents etc.)

15) What are 20 Search keywords or phrases that I think my/my client’s target markets will use to find the site in the Search Engines?

16) Who are my/my client’s major competitors online? What are their URLs? What keywords are they targeting?

17) Who are the stake-holders of this site? How will I report to them?

18) Do I have access to site traffic logs or statistics to enable me to track visitor activity during the campaign? Specifically, what visitor activity will I be tracking?

19) How do I plan on tracking my or my client’s conversion trends and increased rankings in the Search Engines?

20) What are my/my client’s expectations for the optimization project? Are they realistic?


Answers to the first 10 questions above will determine the complexity of optimization required. For example, if the site pages currently have little text on them, you know you’ll need to integrate more text to make the site compatible with Search Engines and include adequate target keywords. If the site currently uses frames, you will need to rebuild the pages without frames or create special No-Frames tags to make sure the site can be indexed, and so on.

This initial analysis will help you to scope the time and costs involved in advance. For those of you optimizing client sites, obtaining accurate answers to these questions BEFORE quoting is absolutely crucial. Otherwise you can find yourself in the middle of a project that you have severely under-quoted for.

The remainder of questions are to establish in advance the who, what, where, when, why and how of the optimization project. This will help you determine the most logical keywords and phrases to target, as well as which Search Engines to submit the site to.

For those of you optimizing web sites for a living, you might consider developing a questionnaire that you can give clients to complete to ensure you tailor the web site optimization to their exact needs.

Readmore → Things You Need to Know Before optimizing Your site

Reasons To Consider a Job in search engine marketing

Are you currently seeking employment? Looking for a new profession? Considering a career change? Then a job in the field of search engine marketing should be at the top of your list. Here are 10 reasons why:


1) The search Industry is HOT

The first dot-com bubble may have burst 6 years ago, but the current bubble is getting bigger and stronger every day. One of the main reasons for the current dot-com boom is the skyrocketing growth of the search engine industry. No longer the territory of geekdom, search has exploded into the mainstream over the past few years and businesses are falling over themselves to get seen by online searchers. And they'll pay big bucks to search engines for the privilege.

Have you noticed that Google shares recently hit USD 500 EACH? It's not a coincidence. search giants like Google, Yahoo and AOL can't fail to make money because everybody wants a bit of the search action. There's no denying it, search is HOT, HOT, HOT.


2) It's Considered one of Four Jobs on the Cutting Edge

According to a recent article on MSN Careers, the position of search engine Optimizer is considered one of four jobs on the cutting edge right now. Who gave it this title? A representative from the world's largest specialized recruitment firm - Robert Half International Inc.

search engine Optimization is considered a sub-set of search engine marketing. If you're unsure what a search engine Optimizer (SEO) does, below is a definition provided by MSN Careers:

"search engine Optimizers (SEO) increase a firm's Web site traffic by improving its search-engine page rankings. This is an especially important task in today's Internet-driven world, where many customers first learn of an organization and its products or services through the Web. Because of a shortage of experts in this relatively new area, many top SEOs receive multiple job offers. SEOs typically supplement their knowledge of how various search engines operate and determine
page rankings with strong marketing skills, as well as the ability to communicate effectively and program using HTML."

Wikipedia also defines search engine Optimizers here.


3) The Pay is Fantastic

A job in the search industry can be unbelievably lucrative. As noted recently by Jennifer Laycock of search engine Guide, "There are quite literally more jobs than there are skilled marketers and salaries can skyrocket to almost embarrassing levels."

Have you seen the type of salaries that search engine marketing and search engine Optimization consultants are currently commanding in the US? Clearly, the search industry is making some people rich.

4) You Don't Need a College Degree

Because the search industry is relatively young, there are only a handful of online courses and certifications offered in the field of search engine marketing (search engine College being one such training provider).

Most search engine marketing practitioners are self-taught, learning the trade by experimenting with their own sites, researching trends, attending conferences and participating in discussion forums and so employers don't generally require SEO / SEM certification or a tertiary qualification as a pre-requisite for a position in the industry.

However, candidates who hold a marketing degree or specific industry certification in search engine marketing may well have an edge over their fellow applicants when it comes to interview selection.


5) You Can Learn it all online

Everything you need to know to become a search engine Marketer, you can learn online. All the information is out there, you just have to find it. To become an expert in SEO / SEM, you need to do research, research and more research. Read everything you can get your hands on relating to search on a daily basis, including articles, forums, ebooks, blogs and newsfeeds. Then you need to put this knowledge into practice by experimenting with your own sites, or finding guinea pig sites to practice on such as those of friends, family or charity sites until you find the methods that give you the best results. Programming knowledge is not a pre-requisite for SEO / SEM jobs, but it does help to learn basic HTML. There are plenty of free HTML tutorials online.

If you don't fancy years of research or are in a hurry to jump-start your career in search, consider taking an online Certification course in one of the many search engine marketing disciplines such as the Certification Pathways provided by search engine College. These type of courses are usually tutor-led and designed to fast-track your training and ensure you gain the right type of skills to make you immediately employable within the search industry.


6) You Can Be Your Own Boss

Because most of the work you'll be doing is online, search engine Optimizers and search engine Marketers often have the freedom of choice to work for an employer, work from home and/or freelance. Many SEO / SEM freelancers end up hiring workers and starting their own company due to the massive demand. This gives search engine marketing experts the work from home lifestyle that others can only dream of.


7) search marketing Has the WOW Factor

Once they know what they're doing, it's very easy for a search engine Marketer to wow their clients. The difference that a successful SEO or PPC campaign can make to a client's bottom line is substantial. I've seen online conversion rates for a client zoom from 1% to a massive 5% after just two small tweaks to their web site. And although rankings are not as important as actual conversions, clients still get very excited to see their site listed in the top 10 search results for certain keywords. It's the WOW factor in action.


8) The Demand is Strong and Growing

As mentioned in relation to search engine salaries, there are literally many more jobs than there are skilled marketers to fill them. This extreme demand means search engine Marketers can pick and choose their jobs and/or clients. The more skilled marketers are head-hunted regularly. For search engine Optimization firms, there are more than enough clients to go around and rarely a need to advertise for new business. That's why you often find SEOs turning away clients or recommending their competitors during extremely busy periods.

Experts in select specialties such as Pay Per Click Advertising (a sub-set of search engine marketing) are currently enjoying even higher demand than usual, as advertisers out-bid each other to have their site shown for popular keyword searches on Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Another indicator of high demand is the sheer number of search-related job postings seen on employment sites such as those listed here.


9) The Industry is Hip and Groovy

There's something very trendy about people in search that I can't quite put my finger on. There's a constant buzz around them. If you've ever been to a search engine conference or to Google's headquarters you'll know what I mean. Maybe it's the fact that they've come from so many different professions. Or that the age range of search marketers varies from teens to Baby Boomers. Or their whacky dress sense.

Maybe it's the smell of money and happiness that they give off. Maybe it's the fact that they are constantly in the media. I don't know. All I know is that it's no longer uncool to be a geek. In fact it's downright hip to be square.


10) The Skills Are Portable and Global

Skills in search engine marketing are portable and global. You don't need to be at a desk, in an office or on the phone all day. You don't even need to meet your clients. Of all my clients, I've probably only met 20 percent of them and spoken to half of them on the phone or via chat. You can be on vacation for six months out of the year in various locations and still conduct business. You literally only need a computer and an Internet connection. The Internet is the universal equalizer. You can service clients in any country in the world, in many different languages. You can compete with one man operations and Fortune 500 companies on the same level playing field. The flexibility of the search industry is a huge advantage over other career options.
Have laptop, will travel!


11) Job Satisfaction is High

search is a fascinating industry. With all the hype, daily gossip, corporate take-overs, start-ups and geek toys, I can guarantee that you won't get bored. This combined with the flexible work hours, low start-up costs, ability to be your own boss and the excellent income keeps job satisfaction high for search engine Marketers.

So what are you waiting for? Go get a job in search!

Readmore → Reasons To Consider a Job in search engine marketing

Your Site Indexed By Today

If your webSite is not indexed by search engines, it will not appear on the search engine listings. Therefore, when your webSite is live, the first thing you must do is to let the search engines notice your webSite and index it. In this article, let me share with you 5 ways to get your Site indexed by today:

1. Submitting a XML Sitemap to search engines. The xml Sitemap includes links to every page of your webSite. It is a file that you can Submit to search engines to get your pages indexed. By Submitting your xml Sitemap, you will notify the search engines about your webSite and index every page of it. You can upload your Sitemap to Google by creating a free Google webmaster account.

2. Create a HTML Sitemap page on your webSite. A HTML Sitemap is very different from a xml Sitemap file. A HTML Sitemap is a page on your webSite that is visible to your visitors. It will list down all the links to every page of your Site. This allows visitors to navigate your Site easily and allow search engine spiders to follow the links and discover all pages.

3. Place HTML text links on your webSite. search engine spiders follow HTML text links to discover other pages of your webSite. Therefore, you must ensure that you use HTML text links for simple navigation menu so that search engine spiders can follow. Also, you should hyperlink keywords within your content and point them to other pages of your Site. This is a good way to tell search engines what pages are important.

4. Directory submission. Submit your webSite URL to a list of SEO-friendly directories. DMOZ, Yahoo Directory and BOTW are important directories that you must Submit your webSite to. It is, however, not all directory submission is free. Some may require you to pay a small fee for your webSite submission.

5. article marketing. Write articles and place your webSite URL in the Author Resource Box. Then Submit your articles to a few popular article directories. Once your articles are approved and published, your URL will be live online and this allows search engine spiders to follow the link to discover your webSite.

6. Using social webSites. Social media Sites are generally indexed regularly by search engines. So by placing your webSite URL on social Sites, search engines spiders can discover your URL very quickly and index your new webSite.

Before a webSite can rank high and get organic search engine traffic, it needs to be indexed first. search engine spiders are looking for new webSites and pages every day. By getting a link on Sites that get indexed regularly, it will ensure that your new webSite get indexed quickly.

Readmore → Your Site Indexed By Today

Tips for increase your SEO

1. Label your internal text links and clickable image alt attributes (aka alt tags) as clearly and descriptively as possible. Your site visitors and the Search Engines look at the clickable portion of your links (aka the anchor text) to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Don't make them guess what's at the other end with links that say "click here" or other non-descriptive words. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. The cool thing about writing your anchor text and alt attributes to be descriptive is that you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase.
2.Write compelling copy for the key pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases and your target market's needs, and make sure it's copy that the Search Engines can "see." This is a crucial component to having a successful website. The Search Engines need to read keyword-rich copy on your pages so they can understand how to classify your site. This copy shouldn't be buried in graphics or hidden in Flash. Write your copy based on your most relevant keyword phrases while also making an emotional connection with your site visitor. (This is where that target audience analysis comes in handy!) Understand that there is no magical number of words per page or number of times to use your phrases in your copy. The important thing is to use your keyword phrases only when and where it makes sense to do so for the real people reading your pages. Simply sticking keyword phrases at the top of the page for no apparent reason isn't going to cut it, and it just looks silly. (Purchase and read our Copywriting Combo for exact tips on how to implement this correctly.)
3. Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page's unique Title tag. Title tags are critical because they're given a lot of weight with every Search Engine. Whatever keyword phrases you've written your copy around should also be used in your Title tag. Remember that the information that you place in this tag is what will show up as the clickable link to your site at the Search Engines. Make sure that it accurately reflects the content of the page it's on, while also using the keyword phrases people might be using at a Search Engine to find your stuff.
4. Make sure your site is "link-worthy." Other sites linking to yours is a critical component of a successful Search Engine optimization campaign, as all of the major Search Engines place a good deal of emphasis on your site's overall link popularity. You can go out and request hundreds or thousands of links, but if your site stinks, why would anyone want to link to it? On the other hand, if your site is full of wonderful, useful information, other sites will naturally link to it without your even asking. It's fine to trade links; just make sure you are providing your site visitors with only the highest quality of related sites. When you link to lousy sites, keep in mind what this says to your site visitors as well as to the Search Engines.
5. Don't be married to any one keyword phrase or worried too much about rankings. If you've done the above 9 things correctly, you will start to see an increase in targeted Search Engine visitors to your site fairly quickly. Forget about where you rank for any specific keyword phrase and instead measure your results in increased traffic, sales, and conversions. (You can sign up for a Google Analytics for free, which easily tracks and measures those things that truly matter.) It certainly won't hurt to add new content to your site if it will really make your site more useful, but don't simply add a load of fluff just for the sake of adding something. It really is okay to have a business site that is just a business site and not a diatribe on the history of your products. Neither your site visitors nor the Engines really give a hoot!

Readmore → Tips for increase your SEO