Simple SEO

Tips for the novice…and I was one once. I even took an SEO course before I got started with my website. Before we go too far, here is my story – from the beginning.

With my partner, we decided to build an online business. Needless to say, there was/is lots to learn. So with the help of a marketing agency, we came up with a logo, a concept for a website and the page layouts that we thought would interest our customer-base. We had pages of copy, a very convoluted flowchart and process for customers to follow so that they could sign up from our site, and even a more complicated way to pay for products on the site. Due to the fact that we had little experience except for surfing and shopping on-line, we had to go with what our agency said would work.

The marketing company was well educated in SEO and website design. Considering that we had no idea what SEO was, taking a 2 day course in this certainly changed what we thought and how quickly we believed we could make money. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization – it is the way the search engines crawl your website and find out about your content, rate your expertise and basically move you up the pages and rankings for the topics that you highlight as keywords (more on this later).

The agency was helpful in developing the templates, but they gave us a basic turn-key site that we had to manage and build the content, upload images and forms and develop a payment structure. The capability of the platform we were working with was limited and because we constantly needed programming changes and help from the developer that worked across the country, our costs escalated. I ended up being the one to figure out a less complicated structure by using PayPal instead of the built in e-commerce platform to make it a little easier for our members. This meant that we were no longer using 50% of what we were paying for on the site.

After 6 months, we were ready to launch the site. All of our back-end material was ready to flow to customers. We had developed a marketing plan and even had a focus group test the site and material. We quickly implemented the feedback and launched the site. We had made it….or so we thought. Just because you launch a website, you don’t necessarily have customers beating down your door or filling your inbox. We had to go back to what we learned with our SEO course and tweak. We worked hard to get our site moving on the ranks of the search engines. We were nowhere to be found. Ever. We were writing articles, creating backlinks, doing whatever we learned in our course in an attempt to get us up on the ranking pages. We could find our press releases and our articles, but our keyword searches proved fruitless.

At the same time I became interested in blogging and had another site to set up. I tried this site on my own with JustHost.com. It was easy to use, had quick response with support and it was inexpensive! There were customizable forms and I could create an e-commerce site with PayPal buttons and the works. Since it took only 3 hours to get my site up and running, I started to wonder why it was so difficult to operate our main site. I also started to blog and make connections with other bloggers and internet marketers, who filled in a lot of blanks for me and helped me learn along the way. I am now sort of proficient in Facebook, love to Twitter and blog (Blogger.com is my favourite, although I do have a WordPress.com blog too). What I eventually learned is that I could re-format our site completely, spend less money, and make it much more customer friendly.

Now, where to do this? I check out many of the hosting companies, especially because I needed a particular amount of bandwidth and email boxes. I also wanted to be able to customize forms, create as many pages as I would need and I wanted it to be easy to do. We decided to go with GoDaddy.com. Lovely people, fun to work with, very knowledgeable, will help you as long as it takes to resolve your concern and it was easy to use! So we were off to our website, version 2.0.

We took a very thoughtful road to get the new site up and running. First we dissected our analytics on page landings, time on page, easy of customer use, information that was simply ‘fluff’, and re-wrote the actual site map. We went from an 11 step process to make a purchase to a 3 step process, saving our customers almost 8 minutes to sign up and checkout. Not only that, it was much less confusing from an administrative perspective, so there would be fewer mistakes in the future. By doing the new site we were also able to add widgets to get the word out about the site, connect with our blogs, and create blogs that would help streamline our newsletters – making it again, more customer-friendly.

We took one extra step. Although we thought we knew everything we needed to know about SEO – Search Engine Optimization, I spent time on the phone with a company who specialized in SEO. We actually paid them to optimize our site. Because we are not experts, and what we were doing was not working to move our rankings, we decided to invest for a monthly fee with an SEO Company. This helped us to see the process, understand how to cut down and focus on specific keywords as well as understand some of the foreign e-language that makes a difference to the search engines. By following what this company created for the website, we were able to see progress 30 days later, with our focused keywords getting us to page 1 of Google rankings, #6 on the page. After 45 days this was the case with 3 keywords, along with being on the first page of Yahoo and second page of Bing! After 60 days, our most important keywords have us on the first page of all three major search engines and even more.

Taking the learning from the SEO Company and pairing it with Go Daddy’s Search Engine Visibility program, we had a very solid platform for launching our site and getting better results from the crawlers. Now we are working on driving traffic to the site to build our monthly sign ups. It took a while to get here…and not all of it painless. Here are a few focus points that, if you are developing a site, you cannot do without:

Keywords-
Understanding keywords for SEO was an entirely different part of our strategy. It took us almost a year to get this one right. With the course we took before launching the site, we understood that keywords trigger the search engine because a user would key in a word for the engine to search for on the internet. The search engine would then return a listing of sites that include the keyword. The sites with the most density of the keyword plus links to the site and general traffic as well as many other items drives the ranking of the site to the top of the page for the search engine. If the keyword is key, the density of the keyword is strategic. The keyword needs to show up more than 2% of the times of any other word on your page to get identified as a keyword.

That is to say nothing of finding good keywords to use. So how to find a keyword? You can use programs like WordTracker or Google AdWords Keyword Tool (I like this one!). You can see the times the keyword you are planning to use is ranked in the Google or search engine index. You need to find a word that is searched for a lot with not a huge amount of competition. For example -’recipes’ is a potential keyword, but you can narrow it down to say ‘Mexican food recipes with chicken’. This will help you understand if that is a good keyword to use. Some programs suggest other keywords that you can use as well as the one you entered. This helps you vary the writing on the pages but stay in the same theme as the rest of the site.

Meta Tags-
These are the words at the top bar of the webpage. You can add more here than just the title. You can add your relevant keywords here to help the search engine understand the relevance of the page.

Descriptions-
When a page is highlighted on the search engine, it is usually accompanied by a description. Be sure that there are no two descriptions that match – each is unique to the page. This helps your audience and also helps the search engines keep crawling.

Links-
Send emails, newsletters, press releases that provide links back to your site. Even have it in your electronic signature so that people can easily click back and see your work. This also works on Facebook and LinkedIn too. Social sites are a great way to collect fans, drive incremental traffic and build credibility.

Website Host Support-
The experts at the website host are usually pretty good. In both my experiences, I have met knowledgeable and interested people, ready to help. Keep asking questions with host support – they know lots of stuff.

I wanted to ensure that I could help others get around some roadblocks or simply the fear of setting up a website. There are many things to work out along the way. Taking your time and keeping the end-user in mind at all steps of the process will help you smooth your path to a successful website launch.

With over 20 years of business and leadership experience, Lora Crestan offers coaching online through http://www.solutionlinx.com. One on one coaching is offered through http://www.solsticegroupcoaching.com. Visit today and find your best you!

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lora_Crestan

5 Best Practices For Increasing Email Program Response Rate and Driving Deeper Customer Engagement

Today, most organizations recognize email marketing as one of the most cost-effective ways to reach and convert prospects and build a deeper relationship with customers to drive incremental sales. It is the top area of business investment for 2010 according to Strongmail’s 2010 Marketing Trends report. Along with being the most effective way to communicate, it continues to be one of the most misunderstood marketing tools.

Here, I will provide you with 5 best practices to help you to communicate in a customer-centric way and increase your email response!

1. Increasing Response Rate with Shorter Subject Lines

All of us receive far too many emails on any given day, so it’s hard for us to determine which emails to read and which ones to delete. It starts with the subject line and how relevant the content in the subject field is to your customer’s needs. Studies show that subject lines shorter than 50 characters in length lead to increased open and click-through rates.

Subject line lengths were divided into zero to 49 characters and 50+ characters.

When analyzed, the zero-to-49-character subject lines had an open rate 12.5 percent higher than the 50+-character subject lines. Click-through rates for the zero-to-49-character group were 75 percent higher than the 50+ group. The zero-to-49 and 50+-character subject line length criteria was used primarily because the AOL email client, used by more than 25 million consumers, displays a maximum of 49 characters for email subject lines. As always, test different lengths of subject lines to determine what works best for your specific customers and subscribers.

2. Increasing Response Rates with More Links

Include multiple links in your email to give your customers multiple ways to engage with you. Some people may only spend a few seconds skimming your email; they may only read the first paragraph or first section. They would not make it to the end of the email message and may choose to click on the links. And there are customers who will take the time to read the entire email

Studies show that increasing the number of hyperlinks in a message leads to increased open and click-through rates. Emails with 25 or more links had an open rate 12 percent higher than those containing fewer than 25 links and a click-through rate 29 percent higher than for e-mails with fewer than 25 links.

These results certainly support some long-held beliefs among email marketers. In general, email marketers should include as many hyperlinks as possible. The more links there are, the greater the chances that one or more will resonate with the recipient and motivate them to click through. And while 25 links may sound like a lot, best practices newsletters can easily reach 15-20 navigation and administrative links by themselves.

Though these findings are compelling, it is essential that email marketers conduct split tests across key variables to determine what works best for their specific customers and subscribers. Also, since a larger number of links is a way of providing a variety of choices to your subscribers, consider dynamic content as an alternative to many links. Building emails based on subscriber preference or behavior can achieve better results that lots of links by delivering only the information the subscriber is looking for. Again, testing is the best way to steer your marketing strategy.

3. Increase Response Rate with Updated Privacy Policy

Always place a link to your privacy policy from email you send, which is best done in a standard footer area that also contains an opt-out and other regulatory information.

If you operate a website, you may already have a privacy policy describing how you collect information from visitors and what you intend to do with it. Since email marketing almost always leads to collection of personally identifying information (“PII”), a published privacy policy is a must even if you don’t collect anything more than an email address on your website.

It’s a very good idea to have your privacy policy reviewed and certified by an independent 3rd party, such as TRUSTe, to ensure you are clear in your promise to your web visitors and email subscribers.

4. Increase Response Rate by Establishing Double Opt-in

While single opt-in tends to acquire more e-mail subscribers, there are a number of inherent problems that can be better handled through a secondary, double opt-in practice to confirm subscription. Here are several important reasons double opt-in is a better practice:

• Double opt-in prevents erroneous subscriptions. Often, simple misspellings of common user names or domain names may cause email messages to begin sending to a completely unintended address. Not only do you lose an interested subscriber, but you also gain a user who will most likely cry foul and complain of spam.

• Double opt-in prevents malicious subscriptions. A popular nuisance tactic in the Internet age is to subscribe someone who really ticked you off to as many mailing lists as possible, sending them a mountain of email. This creates a terrible headache for the victim and turns your newsletters into tools of harassment.

• Double opt-in provides an audit trail. Having double opt-in confirmation logs allows you to refute any spam complaints that may come up. Double opt-in is seen by mail administrators as the most privacy-conscious way of handling email subscriptions; in case of any corporate filtering, they will be more likely to white list your newsletters if confirmation logs are available.

And last, but certainly not least, confirmation logs protect against anti-spam legislation by providing evidence of solicitation.

5. Increase Email Lists by Integrating Email Pre-Checked Opt-in Across All Customer Engagements and Forms

Using a pre-checked default in an opt-in checkbox within a general registration form is perhaps the most popular way to acquire new email subscribers. One perspective is pre-checking saves the registrant time in filling out the form and makes it more likely they will decide to subscribe to your email communications (thereby building an email list faster). The other perspective is people are likely to overlook this checkbox and unintentionally subscribe, potentially producing complaints and an unhappy customer. Of course, both perspectives can be correct – so, which approach is best?

Using an unchecked opt-in box is the best way to ensure “affirmative consent” while producing an email list of truly interested subscribers. Although your email list will likely be smaller and grow more slowly, the open-and-click rates are likely to be higher than a pre-checked opt-in. You will also establish trust with your customers by not assuming they wish to receive emails from you. Combining the unchecked opt-in with a double opt-in confirmation is the ultimate permission marketing strategy producing the most highly responsive email lists.

Given this, testing each method and comparing response and complaint rates with corresponding costs is a sensible approach. If you have a very low complaint rate from single opt-in and your response rates compare favorably with your ROI equation, then single opt-in may be right for your business.

Well-conceived email programs will deliver better results and sales for you. Email can be an effective and high-ROI tactic for you. It is always a good practice to review your email program and investigate if there are efficiencies and ideas that can be introduced to generate better results.

Lorel Marketing Group
Graphic Arts Building
590 North Gulph Road
Valley Forge, PA 19406
(610) 337-2343
http://www.lorel.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/lorel-marketing-group

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurissa_Doonan

Select a Right Web Host For Your Dream Website

Web Hosting is really a complex job. The web hosts need to have great understanding of the evolution of the hosting techniques and should be up to date with the state of the art technologies in the web hosting field. It is true that there are many service providers in this filed. All of them will have highly exaggerated claims and in reality the customers used to face many hardships with the deteriorated performance of the hosting services.

There are many aspects to be considered in zeroing down to a perfect web host. But there are three important aspects, which are highly essential for you to have very efficient and effective website.

• Main criteria should be on uptime. How long the server goes down in a specified period is an important factor in deciding the effectiveness of a hosting service. Assume that out of 1000 hours of service, it is just down only less than an hour. Then the uptime will be more than 99.9%. Of course, there are few providers having this reliability.

• The customer care service is extremely important. Websites and servers can face many unexpected or expected problems. It is not uncommon. But the main theme is how fast the problems are solved by the service provider. Best customer care support working all through 24 hours in a day is highly necessary. A good web host should have a great team with professionally trained customer care executives.

• Features helping website building is also very important in the customer point of view. The features will include the free data transfer, unlimited disk space, control panel features, platform on which the hosting support is available and software tools.

How Can Video Production Help Any Business?

Corporate Video has come a long way since the days of corny company messages being introduced by a z-list celebrity, being distributed via a worn out VHS tape. Businesses now have easy access to a wide range of technology to produce any kind of business message, professionally, easily, dynamically, and cost effectively.

Rapidly developing technology has meant that corporate video productions can be produced on a much tighter budget, but with a much higher quality picture and sound. This has meant that production companies can offer a much more cost effective service, with much more flexibility than ever before and so opens up the opportunity for ANY business to have their own company video.

Corporate video productions can be watched on DVD, on a computer, on a mobile phone, on an ipod, or (the most popular method) over the internet. Nearly every computer can now view video over the internet quickly and easily, and at a very high quality. This means companies can gain access to a potential audience of billions! The only restriction is your imagination!

So, how can a video help your business? This very much depends on the company, and the type of business. You may want to establish your company as small and friendly, or large with a more corporate feel;video can do this. You have a product that really should be seen in use to appreciate its benefits, or have a lot of sales benefits that should be considered;video can do this. You have training that needs to be delivered to a wide audience quickly and easily, or instructions for a product you sell;video can do this.

One very powerful way to harness the power of video production is to create customer testimonial videos. What better way to show why people should become a customer than to hear others talk about their positive past experiences, on film? Word of mouth is one of the most successful marketing tools, but one of the hardest to control,but not anymore!

Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace now utilize video in a multitude of ways, and a corporate video production can be uploaded to many sites to spread the message far and wide, to reach an unlimited audience, and to build a company profile. These videos will drive more people to your website, stir interest, and most importantly, increase revenue.

Double Your Income with Just Your Email Address

The title of this article is informed by the fact that l suppose you already have a business, therefore an income. Your income could be coming from your online business or your offline business which ever is the case, get set to double it today with this information.

My intent here is to show you a system that has the potential to double your income with the power of just your E-mail address.

E-mail, l guess you should know, simply means Electronic mail. It is an electronic means of sending, receiving and storing messages.

The E-mail is one of the two components that make the internet what it is. The other is a website.

THE E-MAIL ERA

With the advent of the internet and subsequently the e-mail; the movement or transfer of messages from one part of the world to another has become more efficient and effective. The E-mail has become an indispensable tool to all categories of individuals and businesses.

With the E-mail you can compose, messages store them if you care and send them whenever you please. When you receive replies you can also store them and reference them at will.

E-mail messages are delivered within split seconds at the click of a mouse. E-mail services are provided by internet service providers and they operate on a network system, such that wherever you find yourself on any computer connected to the internet you can access your e-mail account.

Your e-mail could be gotten from a free service provider or paid for from a paid service provider. You can get a free one from yahoo, g-mail or hotmail etc.

The paid E-mails which are usually more secured and prestigious can also be gotten from registering your own domain name and paying for your customized e-mail account. Such domain companies include web4africa, yahoo etc, when you pay , you will get an e-mail that looks like this; you@yourbusinessname.com. Getting a paid e-mail will cost you around $10 or about N1500 if you live in Nigeria.

If you need me to get a reliable, E-mail account for you or your business, then contact me. I will show you the very hosting company I use.

MAKING MONEY WITH THE E-MAIL

Having x-rayed the usefulness of this magical tool called E-mail; let’s examine how you can double your income with the power of your E-mail. As mentioned earlier on in this article, l suppose, you are already doing one form of business or the other presently.

Now let me show you how you can double your income using the power of your e-mail.

I call it E-MAIL SELLING; most people call it E-mail Marketing. It is simply the process of selling your products or services using the instrumentality of an e-mail.

This system involves you building a data base of your potential and existing customers or clients and sending them regular updates about your products and services with the intention of getting their regular patronage.

KEEPING THEM CLOSE

When you keep your potential and existing customers or client close with the power of e-mail communication; they will also keep you close when they have to employ the power of their buying decision. Keeping them close endears them to you and your business.

Warning! In trying to keep them close, please try not to bore them with too many requests to buy. Rather, give them, complementary products or services even for free and after a while ask them to buy something.

THE KEY REQUIREMENTS

You need to use every method you know to build an e-mail data base or call it a Mail-List because this is what e-mail selling venture is all about. You will always hear the experts say the MONEY IS THE LIST.

To build your list, start by providing a feedback form at your business premises, office or on your website where all those visiting are compelled to leave their personal data especially the E-MAIL.

In any case if you don’t have a website, then get one free from blogger or wordpress

Alternatively, you can build your list using Classified Adverts. Whatever, it is you are selling, do classified Ads and place them in public places like the Mass Media (Newspaper, Magazines and Online Forums etc)

DON’T DO THIS

Please don’t send out e-mails to people who don’t know you and who you have not had previous dealings with. If you do you will be taking an illegal action – it is called SPAMMING and comes with a lot of consequences.

DO THIS

Take action today; start building your E-mail list and KEEP THEM CLOSE. I hope this article helps you double your sales and income right NOW!