Search Engine Optimization Meets Online PR by Dali Singh

Search Engine Optimization Meets Online PR by Dali Singh

We all know by now that content is king. In order to effectively market your products or services and to establish yourself as a leader in your industry, writing and distributing articles is the way to go. One of the primary benefits of getting your content rich articles indexed in the search engines is so that you can increase your websites overall PageRank, while continuing to build exposure for your company.

Here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction:

Add popular keyword phrases in your article- When writing your article, make sure to include popular keyword phrases in your headline, subheads and summary of your article. Make sure your site uses these words too. Placing these keywords and search terms may help prospects and the press identify your article when they run a search in the major news feeds.

Include your website link - Whether it is in the authors byline or in the body of the article, if you are going to write an article, make sure to include your website link within the article. This is the best way to get inbound links from other websites, without having to return the favor.

Submit to PRWeb and other newswires - Journalists increasingly rely on major search engines for their research. In order to get your press release found, indexed and ranked, you may want to consider submitting to an article distribution service like PR Web. PR Web sends press releases to major news search engines, including Google News and Yahoo News. Press releases distributed through PR Web are optimized for maximum organic search engine inclusion. Search engines can then crawl naturally and efficiently to index your press release.

Additional article distribution services:
www.thephantomwriters.com
www.marketingsource.com

Identify the best websites for your article - After optimizing your article, identify which websites to submit your article to. There are hundreds, if not thousands of publishers that are looking for quality content to publish. It is best to find high traffic websites that have the target audience you are looking for. To find these sites, simply perform a search in Google by placing relevant terms like article submission or article directory in the search box. For instance, if you are writing a self-help article, type the term self-help articles and target the websites that are on the first few pages of the search engine.

Article announcement lists - Announcement Lists are newsletters, groups or ezines, which allow you to "announce" your new articles to thousands of editors and publishers instantly. Most of these announcement lists are sent out daily to their subscribers. This means that you can have your article circulating to key editors and publishers within hours of completion.

Here are a few Article Announcement Lists that may distribute your article:

http://topica.com/lists/freeezinecontent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles/

Become a contributing writer - If you are you an accomplished or aspiring writer with something to contribute, you might consider becoming a contributing writer for an online community. Typically, you do not get paid for your work but the amount of exposure you get is invaluable. You also get credit for your article including a free link to your email address and your website!

Here are a few good web properties to consider writing for:
Suite101.com
About.com

In sum, writing and distributing articles is one of the most promising ways to boost your sites ranking in the search engines. In the process, you also benefit from building quality links to your site, gaining an editorial following and most importantly, sharing your knowledge with the rest of the world!

About the Author
Dali Singh is the Managing Director for Blueliner Marketing, a full-service marketing and Internet consultancy, based in New York. She can be reached at
dali@bluelinermarketing.com or visit www.bluelinermarketing.com.

A Search Engine Optimizer's New Year's Resolutions by Shawn Campbell

A Search Engine Optimizer's New Year's Resolutions by Shawn Campbell

With the ringing in of the New Year, I resolve to become a better search engine optimizer (SEO). Below is a list of resolutions that I have made in order to make my clients' web sites the absolute best on the web.

I will not use flash as text.

Even though many search engines can now read some of the text embedded in flash, flash sites do not perform as well in search engine results as non-flash sites. Flash should primarily be used to enhance sites; in the same way one would use pictures to make the site look better.

I will not use images as text.

Although I personally believe that text in images will be read by search engines by the end of 2006, we are not there just yet. As it now stands, image text is invisible to search engines and therefore should not be used in that capacity.

I will use good usability techniques.

Usability is simple to test. Get three friends to complete a task on your site as you silently watch and take notes (have them talk out loud too). You will be amazed as to what you find. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox has a good introduction to usability.

I will not use cloaking.

Cloaking is frowned upon by search engines. Once they catch you, you will get penalized (or in some instances, banned).

I will not use frames unless I have a REALLY good reason to.

Frames complicate things for the search engine. There are very few good reasons to use frames and thus they should be avoided whenever possible.


I will use a catchy title with the keyphrase in it.

Marketing is what we are all about. A catchy title will bring in the customers. A title containing the target keyphrase will raise the result in the search engines. Put the two together and you have a professional marketing title that works hard to bring in traffic.

I will track the return on investment (ROI).

By tracking the ROI, I will clearly see if the site is making or losing money. To track ROI one needs to co-relate the marketing dollars spent with the revenue earned. This statistic is usually hindered by the site's owner, who cannot (or does not) provide the financial information, nor the conversional statistics I need to track ROI.

I will write an alt tag that clearly depicts what the image is, for every image.

This will help people without images on their screen know what the image is about. Using the keyphrase in the alt tag is a bonus because it will help the rankings slightly in the search engine results, but it is most important to describe the image as clearly as possible.

I will use good informative content.

Ah yes, "Content is King". All the above resolutions are meaningless if I don't have good content. This is what will bring in the search engines. This is what will bring in the clients. And this is what will bring in the dough.

I will not stuff the pages with keyphrases.

Stuffing the page with keyphrases goes against the golden rule of good content. If you stuff the pages with keyphrases, they will no longer read well, and readers won't like to read them. Consequently, people won't enjoy your site, and because the search engines are designed to figure out what people like and then display it to them, the search engines will eventually begin to disregard your site. Therefore, ALWAYS use keyphrases wisely.

I will not use "spammy" techniques.

"Spammy" techniques are anything the search engines say not to use. These techniques may do well in the short-term, but in the long run they will get you penalized (or even banned).
- Google has a list of guidelines here - Yahoo has a list of guidelines here

I will use pay-per-click (PPC), even if it is for a very small amount.

I have found that using even a minuscule PPC campaign will bring in more traffic. It also propagates links to your site throughout the Internet, and thus makes your site more prominent. If you are worried about losing money, then use the free conversion tracking tool available at both Overture and Google AdWords. USE IT. Only then will you know how effective your PPC campaign really is.

I will track unique hits to the site.

By keeping track of whether the site's traffic goes up or down, I get a big picture of the health of the web site. If traffic goes up, then the rankings probably went up. If traffic goes down, then rankings probably went down. Of course there are also seasonal variations (and marketing pushes), but you should be familiar enough with the market to know when to expect such cyclical fluctuations.

I will get a good copywriter to write the content.

"Content is King", so get a professional to write it. You may think you are good, but are you really? Would you bet your Internet presence on it? Use someone who knows how to write specifically for the Internet. Use someone who knows how to balance writing for people, writing for sales, and writing for search engines.

I will not send out "spammy" emails asking for reciprocal links.

Reciprocal links don't bring in clients, and they tend to only slightly boost your PageRank. An SEO's time is better served getting the site listed in directories and on sites where people would be looking for it (such
as associations, suppliers, clients, and more). Personalized emails to these sites requesting a link to yours are fine. Templates or mass emails
requesting reciprocal links are definitely not.

I will work hard getting valuable links to my site.

"Linking is Queen", thus getting links is essential. Find directories that relate to your market and take your time to submit to them (in the best category). Contact your suppliers and/or resellers and see if they will link to you. Figure out where your potential clients hang out on the Internet, and get those sites to link to you. Do your homework to choose where you want your links to appear, then roll up your sleeves, get out the elbow grease and get those links to show up!

With a little dedication and a lot of work, I will get my clients into the top search engine results. If you want to do well with your web site, stickto these resolutions and before you know it the traffic (and the sales) will roll in smoothly, just like the New Year.
About the Author
Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.