SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is one of the key steps in creating, maintaining, and promoting a high-traffic website. Freeing you from spending thousands of dollars on advertising and promotion, SEO allows you to grow your traffic organically with the help of page rankings. What many web designers learn only after much experience, however, is the difference meta tags make in how your pages rank.

No aspect of SEO is more commonly overlooked than placing meta tags on every page. These tags, written into the code of your page where they are invisible to visitors, give search engines specific identifiers for the page. Some websites create their listings almost entirely on meta tags, yet many website owners fail to implement them to full effect.

There are two different kinds of meta tags that have a high impact on SEO. Take, for our first example, the META KEYWORDS tag. This meta tag enumerates keywords to spiders, informing them what the website is all about. If you visit www.nytimes.com and right click on the page, and then click on “View Source,” you will encounter a meta tag about half down the first page reading META KEYWORDS. This tag will show you a long list of keywords starting with “New York Times, international news, daily newspaper, people, regional news, national news?” and so on. This keyword list includes dozens of words that relate to the New York Times but also to newspapers in general.

Most search engines detect these keywords in content, too, but it can be helpful for you to include keywords that are especially low-density in text, such as odd spellings of names and places, related topics not specifically discussed on the page, and any other keywords you have trouble injecting into your content in a user-friendly way.

The second critical meta tag is the META DESCRIPTION tag. Search engines use this tag to display information about your site when in search results. Most search engines allow 160 characters in this meta tag. The META DESCRIPTION tag is also a place you may include keywords that boost your page rankings for targeted phrases.

There are also other meta tags, but these two are vital for SEO. It is important that you maximize your use of META KEYWORDS and META DESCRIPTION tags by making sure you do not cram them with words unrelated to your content or use the same keywords too many total times on the same page. Putting in too many keywords will cause the search engines to penalize your pages as spam. Not using enough keywords is almost as bad.

Finally, be sure to use different meta tags on every page. You should target tags to the content included on that particular page. If you repeat meta tags through your site, you will not benefit from valuable differences in keywords on particular pages.

© JustinHarrison for Niches 2 Riches Marketing Blog, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Affiliate Marketing, business, computers, ecommerce, entrepreneur, internet, internet marketing, internet;business, marketing, Niche Marketing, niche traffic, seo, traffic generation, web development, website;promotion

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Logging into Google AdWords, you will quickly find a large number of very useful tools at your disposal. These tools will make it possible to proof your ads for errors, choose their placement, optimize your website, and generate a huge number of reports so you can see how your ads are performing against other sites, in their demographics, and much more. But probably the most powerful tool you will find is the Google Adwords keyword suggestion tool, which uses ad data to generate a list of related keywords along with their recent search data and their cost.

To begin, you should generate your own list of some basic keywords. This list of no more than 15 words will give AdWords the data to generate new words and phrases for you. You can either find these keywords directly on your web pages, and Google can do that for you automatically, or you can brainstorm you own list based on what you think your most profitable visitors would search for if they wanted what your website provides.

Either way, the next step is for you to take your list to the keyword suggestion tool. Start by entering your keywords one at a time. It is possible to enter multiple keywords all at once, but if you do this, it’s highly likely you will get back a list of hundreds of keywords that don’t really related to your site. It is far more effective just to start with one keyword at a time, letting the Adwords keyword suggestion tool generate related terms that you may be able to use.

Whenever you enter a word or phrase into the keyword suggestion tool, it will come back with other keywords or phrases that match websites with similar content. It will also find keywords and phrases from the Adwords campaigns of other site owners who bid on some of the same words you chose. The suggestion tool estimates traffic per month, tells you how much competition there is for the word or term, and gives you current prices for placement at various levels of the page.

Moreover, Adwords gives you dozens more options that will tell you even more about your keywords. You can generate monthly traffic charts, telling you how the popularity of your keywords goes up and down throughout the year. You can get an estimate of the position of your ad on the page at various prices, and you can get an estimate of the number of clicks you can buy based on last month’s search volume, average search volume, and which month the search volume for that keyword is the highest.

Every one of these bits of information is important as you choose your keywords, but it is still up to you to select search terms that you know match your content. Don’t throw your money away on a low competition, high volume, cheap keyword that won’t bring you any visitors who will appreciate your site and buy your products. But be assured that if you do diligent research and stay creative, every keyword you choose for your Adwords campaign will drive traffic to your site.

© JustinHarrison for Niches 2 Riches Marketing Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: adwords, Affiliate Marketing, business, ecommerce, entrepreneur, internet, internet marketing, internet;business, keywords, marketing, niche advertising, Niche Marketing, niches, seo, traffic generation, web development, website;promotion

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Google AdWords is the most potent high-volume advertising tool on the Internet. Millions of Internet entrepreneurs use it to create and post ads around the world through Google and its search partners. It’s no wonder that you are keen to get started with Google Adwords and start making money.

The beauty of Google Adwords is that it can do something that no other form of advertising can do. Adwords can target the exact customers you need to make sales. Adwords grants you unmatched access to keyword generators and demographic tools, allowing you to find just the right keywords to bring in just the right demographic for maximum return on your advertising dollars. Anytime someone in your target demographic searches for your keyword phrase, your sponsored link will appear to the side of the screen. And you don’t have to pay for that ad unless someone clicks on it.

Let’s say you run a fantasy baseball site. With Google Adwords, you can create an add that allows you to target searches on fantasy baseball related keywords to show your ads. Every 30 days, between 74,000 and 20,000,000 people search for information about fantasy baseball, with the peak in March of every year. Competition from other advertisers is high, but the rewards are as well. At an average Cost per Click (CPC) of around $0.93, each click can bring a valuable, targeted visitor to your fantasy baseball site.

Let’s say you make $25 per sign up to your website. You get an additional $100 per 10,000 visits you get in ad revenue. The more people you can get coming to your website, the more money you will make. If one in 20 people signs up for your site after clicking your ad, you make $5 in profit per signup, plus whatever profit you make on advertising revenue for their repeat visits. If you find the right keywords so that one in 10 visitors from Adwords signs up for your site, you make $15 per signup. Twice the sign-up rate yields three times the profits. That’s the beauty of sticking with Adwords.

Like any other advertising option, Adwords is a basic investment. You put money in to get more money out. Unlike other advertising services, though, Google Adwords gives you more control over exactly what kind of traffic you generate for your website. You can choose whom to target, what kinds of searches to target, and when to display your ads for maximum response.

As you hone your target demographic, you will earn enough to reinvest in even more advertising to grow your niche on the net. Millions have done this already and proven that online advertising is one of the best moneymakers around.

© JustinHarrison for Niches 2 Riches Marketing Blog, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Affiliate Marketing, business, Business Building, computers, ecommerce, entrepreneur, internet, internet marketing, internet;business, marketing, niche advertising, Niche Marketing, seo, web development, website;promotion

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