- 0 – Money from the Web – 0 – The Reality Show

by Ivana Katz

“How do I get my website to come up on top of the search engines?” – That is one of the most frequently asked questions I get asked by clients.

The truth is, it’s not easy. With millions of websites on the internet right now and thousands being added each month, everyone is striving to do the same – to come up in the first spot (or on the first page).

In reality there are only 2 ways you can come up on top:

1. Set up a pay per click advertising campaign, such as Google Adwords
2. Optimise your website for keywords (also know as Search Engine Optimisation)

Keywords

Before you embark on either of these marketing methods, you need to understand about keywords.

Keywords or key phrases are the words that visitors type into a search engine to find a service or product. The best keywords are those that are commonly typed in by your potential customers, but which aren’t used much on your competitor’s websites. In other words, if you optimize your pages for keywords your potential customers use a lot, but your competitors haven’t thought of, you win. But here’s the catch…you’ll never get to know which are the best keywords for your website simply by guessing.

There are many tools you can use to find what keywords people are using, including Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.

If you are serious about finding the perfect keywords, I would recommend using a tool called Wordtracker – www.wordtracker.com. Through a series of simple steps, Wordtracker identifies the best keywords to use on each page of your website. Wordtracker’s suggestions are based on over 300 million keywords and phrases that people have used over the previous 90 days. (In other words, there is no “guessing” when you use Wordtracker. Everything is based on the keywords millions of people have actually typed into search engines.)

Best of all, their competitive analysis tool enables you to find those “best keywords” – the ones your potential customers use, but which your competitors don’t know about.

Once you have identified the best keywords, you can either run a pay per click marketing campaign or optimize your website for search engines.

Pay per click

Pay per click advertising is when an advertiser (you) pays for each qualified click that sends a search engine user to your web page. PPC requires you to bid on keywords or phrases that relate to your business. The best known pay per click services are Google AdWords and Overture. Generally you can bid from as little as a few cents per visitor. However, the more you bid the higher up in the search engine your advertisement will appear. Pay per click is a great way to deliver targeted and qualified visitors to your website at a very reasonable price.

It is a good idea to experiment with different PPC search engines to find the one that works best for you. In addition, you will need to spend time testing your keywords and ads.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engines prefer to list sites that contain good content. In order to rank high you need to create a website that has maximum content and which uses lots of relevant keywords to your service and products.

Once you decide on the keywords, use them in

• (a) Your website’s domain name
• (b) The title of your page – This is displayed in the top bar of your browser window
• (c) The heading of your home page
• (d) The first paragraph of your home page
• (e) Meta tags – Keywords, page title, description
• (f) Titles of your graphics
• (g) Alternative (Alt) tags – These appear in place of images when the browser preferences are set for text only.

Whilst it is important to use keywords as much as possible, it is also important you use them only if they are relevant and do not sound awkward. If you spam your keywords you may be penalised or even banned by some search engines.

Another important thing to consider when trying to optimize your website for search engines is to have as many relevant links pointing back to your website from other complementary sites. This can be done through link exchanges or by writing articles/posts and submitting them to article directories or forums. Ensure you include your domain name at the end of each article/post.

If this all seems too overwhelming, you can employ the services of a Search engine optimization company, who will make your website’s content more search engine friendly.

Please remember, having your website listed at the top of the search engines is not the only way to promote your website. There are lots of other ways you can get visitors to your site for little or no money.

Editors Note: Do you need to get a website up in a short time? Check out HostGator for hosting and Build Your Site Online With Site Studio Template System! Easy to Use!

About the Author:

Ivana Katz of Websites 4 Small Business makes it easy for you to get your business on the internet. If you’re looking for a professional and affordable website designer, visit www.web4business.com.au and download a free website plan.
Article Source: ABC Article Directory | Articles |Submit Articles | Article Search Engine | Article Directory

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I have just uploaded the last few pages for the current phase of this website update. There are about 15 new pages on the site at this point. I will try to revisit the site soon to add even more content.

The history of this site is this. The site was originally developed because an acquaintance bid on a couple of sites on ebay and won the auction. He had no idea of the mechanics of the web or Internet Marketing. He bought into the line that he could own these ‘money making’ websites. I think that he has made some small change with his purchase, but probably not up to the level of the dream. I wanted to provide some information that might alert prospective buyers about some of the practices that go on on the web.

I  did not have much content on the site and there was really little reason for people to visit the site. Since the information that I had on the site was aimed at new hopeful Internet Marketers I decided to expand the scope of the site to include all who are thinking about building or owning a website. And so . . . The Website Basics section was born.

I originally considered just a few pages to cover the material, but one thing lead to another. As I was writing some of the content I would think of another topic that should be discussed and some other features that should be added to the site. So now, phase one of the re-purposing of this site is now on the web. Stop by the main site to see the update: Before You Buy a Website

This blog is now ‘do follow’ and uses KeywordLuv so leave an honest comment and get a backlink. I do have the blog set so that I manually authorize comments. Your quality comment will show up when I check it off. Thands

Some of the update is completed and on the web. I have added several pages of content and tweaked some other things. The problem with adding content is that there is always some other idea that pops into my mind as to other things that would be of value to the site.

There are several new items in the left nav pane. The items in the list that are not linked are items that I plan to write soon. I also redid the top and bottom nav bars and added some pages to both of them. I plan to submit the Keyword article to Ezine Articles for consideration. Check it out now on the main site: Before You Buy a Website