Search Engine Optimization (seo)

Search Engine Marketing

Analytics

Learn how looking at the ways people find and use your web site can give you valuable insight into your marketing campaigns, your page content and your products. Our Analytics articles cover topics like why you should be tracking your analytics, which analytics programs to use and what you should be doing with the data you gather.

Blogging

Blogs are simple programs that allow web site owners to quickly and easily publish new content to their web site. Our series of articles on blogging offers practical advice on setting up a blog, deciding what type of content you should publish on your blog and how you can use blogs to market your business.

Brand Building

With social media and search engines driving a huge percentage of the traffic to a web site, it's essential to make sure you're building your brand and convincing people to come looking for YOU. Find out how to build a stronger brand by positioning yourself in search results and by branding yourself through social media conversations.

Content and Copywriting

Getting people to come to your web site is only half the battle. Once they've arrived, you need to be certain you're serving up fresh, engaging content. While writing is a skill that doesn't always come easy, our collection of simple tips and insights can help you rev up your content to gain better search engine rankings and higher conversion rates.

Conversions

Traffic is not your friend. Conversions are your friend. This collection of articles shares practical advice you can use in your marketing campaigns and on your web site to make sure you are driving leads, sales and sign-ups. Learn how to define your conversion points and then focus on improving them.

Keywords

Keywords are the words or phrases people type into the search engines to find the web sites they're looking for. Learn how to identify the best keywords for your site and how to integrate them into your title tags, headlines and page copy to improve rankings.

Link Building

There's no denying the power of links in terms of online marketing. Search engines use links as a way to determine how valuable and relevant your site is and people use links to move from one site to another. Building quality links from relevant sources can go a long way toward improving your search rankings, but it can also drive tons of targeted traffic.

Local Search

With paper Yellow Pages quickly getting buried in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, local search is being an essential part of any online marketing campaign. Learn which sites searchers are turning to for listings and reviews and find out how you can put your best foot forward on them.

Online PR

Public relations isn't just for big companies anymore. The web has taken conversation global which means one angry customer can do major damage to your brand. Of course that also means one very happy customer can launch your brand into the stratosphere. Learn the nuances of online public relations through the articles in this category.

Online Reputation Management

Companies worry someone might say something bad about them online. What they should be worried about is that someone might say something bad about them online without them ever knowing it. Learn how to track the conversation about your company, your products and even yourself. Get practical tips and advice on heading off, or recovering from a crisis.

Other

A collection of articles and posts that do not fall into any particular online marketing category.

Paid Search Advertising (PPC)

Purchasing keyword triggered advertising on major search engines or content sites can be a great way to drive targeted traffic to your web site. These articles explore the various paid search advertising options and offer up tips for maximizing the value of your ad dollar.

Puppy Picks

Search Engine Marketing

This category covers high level search marketing concepts. These articles and posts tend to focus on the overall value of search marketing tactics and the need to integrate several forms of online marketing to build stronger results.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is the practice of increasing your rankings in the organic (non-paid) search results of a search engine. The posts in this category offer up tips and advice for making sure your site is search engine friendly and for increasing your rankings through changes in links, content and keyword focus.

Search Marketing Bootcamp

If you're new to search marketing, these entry level articles will help you get an idea of what goes into a search marketing campaign. You'll find step by step primers and simple explanations aimed at helping you dive into search marketing without fear of drowning.

Social Media

There's a conversation going on around you. Are you part of it? Social media sites focus on giving people a way to connect and share thoughts, ideas and creations. Smart companies are figuring out ways to contribute to and become part of this conversation. Learn how to join in without stepping on toes.

Keywords & Search Terms

The first step is to learn about the search terms that your target audience is using when using search engines. These search terms are the keywords and keyphrases that will be used to market your web site.

On this page you will learn about:

• The importance of keywords and search terms.
• Tools that will help you find your best keywords.
• Search term lists useful for spotting general trends.

Search Engine Optimization Step two addresses how to make basic web site design changes that will make your site more search engine friendly.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
2. Domain names.
3. The Title Tag.
4. Meta Description and Meta Keyword Tags.
5. Copywriting.
6. ALT Tags.
7. Site Map
8. Dealing with FLASH.
9. Dealing with dynamic pages.
10. File formats.
11. Framed sites & pages.
12. JavaScript.
13. What to avoid.
14. Getting professional SEO help.
15. Getting free help.

Search Engine Submission After you've gone through the search engine optimization process, it's time to get your site listed in the various search engines and directories.

On this page you will learn about:

1. How will the search engines find my site?
2. Submitting your site using a free submit form.
3. Submitting to directories.
4. Paying the search engines to index your site.
5. Services to avoid.
6. Services that can help.

Link Popularity Link popularity is a major factor when it comes to ranking well in search engines and drawing traffic to your site. In step four, you will learn how to increase the number of links to your site, how to get quality sites to link to yours, and the overall effect link popularity has on your rankings.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is link popularity?
2. Getting links to your site.
3. Checking Your Link Popularity
4. What not to do.

Paid Inclusion If you would rather not wait for the search engines to find and index your site on their own, you can pay to be indexed faster. With step five, you will learn if paid inclusion is a viable option for you.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is paid inclusion?
2. Will it help my site rank better?
3. What are the costs?

Pay Per Click Search Engines Pay per click search engines and pay per click advertising provides web site owners the opportunity to buy their way to better positions on search results pages. Step six looks at this form of advertising.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is pay per click?
2. Which search engines allow pay per click advertising?
3. Important Considerations
4. Pay per click affiliate programs.
5. Pay per click information resources.

Log File and Traffic Analysis Your site's log files contain a wealth of information about the effectiveness of your web site marketing programs. With your log files, you can learn how your visitors are finding your site, what search terms they are using to find it, and which are the best sources of traffic for your site.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is a log file?
2. Why is log file and traffic analysis important?
3. Services and tools that can help.

Google's PageRank Although Google's PageRank is but one factor Google uses to determine its search results, it is a popular topic. Step eight provides basic information to help you better understand the importance of PageRank.

On this page you will learn about:

1. What is Google's PageRank?
2. How do I find the PageRank of a web page?