Positioning Your Website So Even Jacques Cousteau Can Find It

So you’ve set up a website for your business. You’ve hired someone to build it for you, or you did it yourself. You’ve purchased the domain name, you’ve purchased hosting, and you’ve set up an email address that reads something like ‘yourname@yourdomain.com.’ You’re ready to go.

It may seem like all the heavy lifting is over. But in reality, it’s only just begun.

Having a website set up is simply not enough. In order to get the most from it, you have to have visitors, otherwise known as traffic. Without it, your website just sits there, unnoticed, collecting dust, and not serving the purpose you need it to serve: Increasing your business.

You may be asking yourself, “Why isn’t anyone visiting my website?” Well, simply put, your average consumer isn’t jumping online and looking for your site…they’re looking for any site that will answer their questions and provide a solution to the problem they’re facing. And if your website is not in a position to be found to provide that solution, someone else’s website will.

Getting found on the Internet is not easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard either. Often times, the process of optimizing a website is over-complicated by tricks and short cuts that are meant to manipulate search engine rankings. But in actuality, it’s basic Customer Experience 101 that truly makes a website rank well.

Before I reveal a few simple pointers for improving your web presence, I want to share a philosophy I’ve adopted that simplifies a website’s presence.

According to statistics gathered by Pingdom, as of December 2009, there were 234 million websites on the World Wide Web.

With that stat in mind, think of the Internet like the ocean. It’s vast and seemingly never-ending. And your website is a tiny little island in the middle of that ocean, with a guy writing letters, placing them in glass bottles and sending them out to sea in the hope that someday, someone will find him and rescue him.

Before I go further, realize you’re not competing with 234 million sites. However, you are competing with all the websites in your particular niche, whatever that number may be. So how do you get more visitors to your site as opposed to your competitors?

First, determine your target audience and the keyword phrases they’re searching. Once you determine what phrases you want to optimize on your site, place them in the tag and in another location on the page. Normally, it’s easy to get a high ranking for non-competitive keywords. But if you want to go after a more competitive phrase, it takes more diligence. Repeat the steps for non-competitive keywords and put a strong emphasis on providing value to your consumer, both on your site and in your advertising.

Next, search engines rank websites based on popularity, and popularity is gauged by the number of backlinks pointing back to your site. Backlinks are the links in your content that point back to your site. These can be found in various forms of social media, articles, videos, press releases, etc. If there are hundreds of links that redirect consumers back to your site, the search engines will recognize this and rank you higher.

Finally, don’t expect instant results. Many people write one article or create one video and expect a flood of traffic to hit their site. It simply doesn’t work this way. It’s important to maintain consistency with your marketing efforts, as well as provide content that’s jam-packed with value. The more value your readers get, the more they’ll share your content with their audiences, thus creating more links pointing back to your sites.

Don’t over-complicate your efforts or try to manipulate your way to the top of the search engines. Focus on properly optimizing your website for the keywords in your niche that consumers are using and providing value in every way possible, and the rest will fall into place. You can check out my website and blog for more pointers on how to effectively optimize your website and get the most out of your advertising dollar.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_M._Cercone

Google AdWords – How to Find Non-Competitive Keywords to Create a Profitable Campaign

One of the most difficult tasks of creating a profitable Google AdWords campaign is finding keywords that have few competing ads. If you can find alternative keywords to the ones your competitors are using to sell the same product you can create a profitable campaign.

Benefits of finding non-competitive keywords

1. Spend less money

If there are no or a only a few ads using these keywords you won’t have a high cost per click (CPC).

2. Find a different path to the sale

Instead of using the same keywords as your competitors use alternative keywords to sell the same product.

3. Faster profits 

If your keywords have a high search volume and your ad is the only one showing your profits will be faster than if you were competing with a full page of ads.

4. Avoid the double serving rule

If you write an ad that contains the same display URL as another ad already running on Google AdWords you’ll incur the “double serving rule”. This means your ad won’t get displayed until this is corrected.

A simple way to avoid the “double serving rule” is to research alternative keywords from your competitors. This enables you to create ads for the same product without worrying about the competition.

How to find profitable keywords

Google AdWords Tool

Most AdWords advertisers use this tool however not many will spend time sifting out alternative keywords with high search volume their competitors are not using. To check what keywords are being used for Google Ads, simply insert your keyword in Google. If you find a keyword with a high search volume with no ads running you may have a winner…only testing will confirm this.

Misspelled keywords

The Google AdWords tool allows you to find misspelled keywords. Make sure there is a sufficient search volume before using them otherwise you won’t receive many clicks. Your competitors don’t often include misspelled keywords in their campaigns.

Online resources

Thesaurus

This online tool helps you find similar keywords you may not find with the Google AdWords tool.

WordTracker

Use this online tool to generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume. You’ll discover keywords not found with the Google AdWords Keyword Tool or other keyword research software.

Amazon

Use amazon to find items related to what you are selling. You’ll often discover keywords you can incorporate into your campaigns.

eBay Pulse

This tool provides a daily snapshot of current trends, hot picks, and cool stuff on eBay. It helps you find what products are currently selling well.

Google Trends

This tool reflects what keywords people are searching for on a daily basis and shows trends based on regions, cities and languages.

Online Encyclopedias

Searching online encyclopedias like Britannica and Wikipedia within your niche can help you find a huge number of articles…a good resource for finding keywords.

If your methods of finding keywords are not as common as the normal ways keywords are discovered by others, chances are the words you find will not be used by your competitors. If that is the case, fewer competitors will assure you a better chance of getting clicks. 

Learn how to maximize your profits without wasting your money on Google AdWords by reading my review of Dollar Day AdWords

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com
Affordable WebSite Design, Hosting and SEO.

Article Source:

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