Search engines are not the only thing out there, on the web. I see so many articles concentrating only to search engines and they miss the most important thing: all their content is actually for people. We tend to forget that all those statistics and all that we call traffic are people.

For a search engine a nofollow link is equal to zero but from a user perspective it could mean a lot, especially when you’re new on the market and your website doesn’t have too much authority. That is why is a good thing to go on the web, search for the authority websites and people on your market and comment on those websites.

If your comment is interesting enough then it’s a good chance other readers of that blog to click your link. It may not happen right from your first comment but this social-web is about persistency. So keep posting interesting comment and even thou your links will be nofollow you may receive some benefits out of it.

The most important thing is that those websites already managed to gather people interested in your market, so any click will have high value and may also lead to a conversion.

Now, I don’t want you to read this article and just run and place comments all over the web. Find a balance in everything you do and find its value. Just like in a brick and mortar business when you’re evaluating everything you do in terms of costs, you should try and do the same with a web based business.

What do you think of all this? Share your opinion with us and if you find this article interesting please consider subscribing to my blog!

Your presence on the Internet is a collection of bases and outposts: your business blog or business website is your home base, your Facebook page is an outpost, your YouTube channel is an outpost, your Twitter account is an outpost. All your actions in all your outposts are meant to direct readers to your home base, to the place where you can fully show them what you can do for their businesses.

Tracking how effective your actions are on these outposts require different approaches, depending on the social network. In this article I’ll present a quick and easy way to track your impact on YouTube. As you probably know by now, your own video channel on YouTube can be a powerful marketing tool and a great way to drive traffic to your website.

In this article I’ll concentrate on how you can measure the impact of your videos over your website. The most important thing you have to keep in mind is that you need a strategic approach. The requirement for tracking your results is to have some kind of analytic software installed on your website. I personally use Google Analytics.

The simplest thing you can do is to look at your referral traffic and check for YouTube. In order to get some results you’ll have to edit your video description on YouTube and place a link to your website. People will click it and they’ll show up in your Google Analytics reports.

The big disadvantage of this method is that you can’t measure how effective each video is. I think is very important to know how many of your viewers for a particular video clicked the link in the description and not the overall performance of the video channel.

The solution is a small strategic decision. Instead of creating content that you’ll place as standalone videos on YouTube you’ll create video content that will supplement your articles. Each video will be designed for a specific article. And when you’ll edit the description of the video, the first thing to do will be to place a link to that specific article.

You’ll not have all your videos pointing to your home page but each video points to a specific page, where you’ll probably also embed the video. By making this small adjustment you’ll be able to track the impact of each video. You’ll know what videos work and what not and you may also find out that high number of views does not necessary means lots of clicks.

With this setup you’ll be able to go to your Google Analytics account, go to Content > Content by Title, locate a page that has a YouTube video on it, select it and as a second view option you can check for Source. Now you’ll be able to see how people reached that page. Search for YouTube and see how many visits you receive, what was the bounce rate or how much time they stayed on that page.

You can now compare the number of views with the number of visits and you can make decisions on what types of videos to create in the future so that you’ll increase the click rate.

What do you think of all this? How do you track your impact on YouTube? If you find this article useful please consider subscribing to my blog.

I wrote a recent article about what the long tail keywords are, their advantages and disadvantages, but now I would like to explain a little bit the process I use to find long tail keywords worth targeting. You’ll develop content that targets main keywords but the base of every website should be an enormous number of long tail keywords.

The Process of Finding Long Tail Keywords

Just like in the case of main keywords, long tail keywords have to offer a decent search volume/month and also be relevant. Once you decided that a main keyword is relevant to your website then almost all the long tail keywords that are derived from it should be relevant to your website.

Before I tell you the process of how to research for long tail keywords, here are the tools I’m using: Google Keyword External Tool (because it has information on any language or country), Google Sktool and two features from Google Search: Wonder Wheel and Related Searches.

And now, here are the 5 steps that I take in order to find long tail keywords:

1. I start with Google Keyword External. The first search is just using single words. For example for my market I start with words like: seo, keyword, keywords, content and so on. Is very important to let the tool suggest related terms that people are searching. These terms are really the starting point of my search. The same method can be applied using Google Sktool.  I choose one main keyword and then go to step 2.
2. I perform a search on Google for that main keyword. The things that I pay attention are the general competition and title competition. These numbers play an important role in deciding if a keyword is worth targeting or not. So write this down: you’ll have to compare it with the data for the long tail keywords.
3. I use the Wonder Wheel to see what other keywords people searched after the main keyword. Watch the competition and when you find something under 1 million or maximum 2 million you can go for it. Write it down.
4. I also use Related Searches to see what the search engine says that are the related keywords other people searched (these searches are not necessarily performed after searching for your keyword). Again look at the competition and make your own decision: is this keyword relevant and also have a decent competition.
5. I return to Google Keyword External Tool with the long tail keywords that I found. Keep in mind that these keywords were definitely searched by someone but this is not enough. So, you’re checking to see if the tool says it has Not Enough Data or shows you a number. Depending on your market you choose to target a long tail keyword or not. Sometimes a search volume of 100/month can be enough, other times you’ll need a few thousands. It’s relative and depends on the overall search volume trends from your market.

What Do You Think Of This?

Let me know if this info was useful to you and if you have questions. Or maybe you could share your experience. Also, please consider subscribing to this blog and receive my articles directly in your e-mail.

The concept of long tail keyword usually refers to keywords composed of more than 3 words. It can be something from 3 to 4, 5 or more words. Targeting this kind of keywords has its own advantages and in the case of many websites the long tail keywords deliver most of their traffic.

The downside of targeting long tail keywords is the fact that you really have to concentrate on large numbers of long tail keywords. The reason is because the number of monthly searches for a long tail keyword is usually much lower than the searches for a competitive keyword.

Here are some of the advantages of long tail keywords

1. The competition is much lower than in the case of main keywords. So it’s much easier to rank well and faster.
2. Higher conversion. The reason for higher conversion is because long tail keywords mean that people know exactly what are looking for.
3. Help with your rankings on main keywords. You usually use long tail keywords related to your main keywords. A good practice would be to use this additional content to link to your other articles. More articles on related themes will boost your ranking.

Major disadvantages

1. Low search volume. Because of the fact that a long tail keyword is so specific few people are searching for it and the more specific it gets the lower the search volume. So you’ll have to pay attention and decide what long tail keyword is worth the effort and what not
2. You need many. Because of the low search volume you’ll need to target many long tail keywords in order to see some benefits.

The Fact

You can’t do it without long tail keywords. Although it has their disadvantages you’ll have no other option. Why? How many main keywords do you think you can target? Not that many. Yes, it can deliver high volumes of traffic but to get that traffic you’ll need to rank well. And you can’t rank well with just one article.

So long tail keywords are not an option: it’s something you have to do. You already write 3 or 4 or maybe 7 times per week. Why not using long tail keywords in your articles?

What say you?

What is your opinion on this? How do you select your long tail keywords? Share your experience and don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and receive my articles in your e-mail.

If you’re the kind of person that wants to know what their market is talking about on Twitter then this quick tip might interest you!

I see many articles talking about so many tools that can track keywords on Twitter and send you e-mails with the specified tweets but I’m the kind that wants to keep it simple. I don’t like to use many tools: I already have to use many tools in order to provide my SEO services and I just want to limit it.

So, here is a quick tip to stay in touch with your market on Twitter. Go on search.twitter.com and search for the keywords you’re interested in. Then, on the right side of the screen you’ll see a link called “Feed to this query”.

Right click it and Copy Link Location. Then, log in into your Google Reader account and add a subscription with that feed. As a good practice create a Folder in Google Reader called Twitter and place your Twitter feeds there. This way you don’t have to think about which tool did you used, or to receive to many e-mails.

What you think of it? Share your ideas in comments bellow!

Every business has a start. It’s so obvious when we talk about brick and mortar businesses but many people see it differently when it comes about a web-based-business. In fact, when it comes to a web business I think it’s even harder. In real life you’ll open a business in a place where there are already shops and other businesses.

Starting a business on the web can be like opening a shop in the middle of nowhere: there are no roads to you, no buses, nobody knows you exist. SEO and Internet Marketing have to be your main tools: you either pay for ads to drive traffic or you pay for SEO and build optimized content for organic searches.

Don’t Do This Mistake

One of the biggest mistakes that you could do, when you are just starting, is invest time and money to rank well on organic searches for really competitive terms or keywords that are dominated on the first page by high-authority websites.

Some would argue that you should aim high from the first day and go for the big keywords because it will get you big traffic. I don’t want to get me wrong: the final goal will be to get traffic from big terms but, in my opinion, you have to start at the bottom in order to get to the top.

If you open a clothing business, do you think you can do it right next door from (or compete with) Armani, from the first day? Why is it so obvious in real life and people act so blindly when it comes to the web?

Planning and Goals

If you decide to invest in SEO you should think about two main things:

1. Optimizing the content that already exists
2. Building new optimized content

It doesn’t matter if you are just starting your business or not: having a plan and establishing some goals it’s common sense. So, when you start an SEO campaign you should think of some things that you want to improve: metrics like bounce rate, traffic, rankings, returning visitors.

If you want to build new content don’t just go and assume you know what people are searching just because you use those keywords to search for your business. Build a keyword list that has information on the volume of monthly searches, competition, main keywords and related long tail keywords, areas where those searches are being made and so on.

A keyword list should also come with a plan on how to use it: how to target keywords in content, how to link articles, what long tail keywords are related to what main keywords and so on. If you go and skip this step it’s like walking blind on the street: you can bang your head on a wall or you can safely get home – you never know what the next step will bring you.

What Do You Think?

How important is SEO for your business? Are you willing to invest in a keyword list before you start building new content? Do you know what your market is searching for, what are the rising trends and how to properly target the keywords in content? Share your ideas and thoughts in comments bellow.

If you find this article useful, please consider subscribing to this blog and receive my content directly in your e-mail.

I think that keeping it real is a common sense in any business, especially in web-based businesses. This is the big advantage of the web: you can’t fake it. You either have visitors to your website or not; you either get comments or not; you either sell or not – you can’t hide. As a result, you need to stay with your feet on the ground and keep in touch with what your market is doing and searching.

There are lots of ways and tools to keep in touch to what your market is doing: you can listen to social networks, blogs, the web, tweets and so on. There are so many ways that you could get lost. That is why I prefer to use two tools from Google: Google Alerts and iGoogle.

How I use Google Alerts

The process is simple. Create a Gmail account, then search for Google Alerts and set your alerts. My advice would be not to rush into it and create too many alerts. Every day millions of articles are being published, so keep it real. Focus on your top main keywords and some important long tail keywords.

This is not only a way to see what others are publishing related to your keywords in your market but also a way to see how the competition is using the keywords you are trying to rank for. It will also offer you an indicator of how crowded the market is: see how many articles appear in a day, week, month.

You can also use it as a source of inspiration for your own content. I don’t read all the articles I’m receiving but I do a quick scan for interesting ideas and how the keywords are used on the page.

How I use iGoogle

I’m using iGoogle because I can incorporate tables from other Google tools. The most important one for me is Google Insights for Search. What I do is basically incorporate tables to see rising trends in search for different related terms. Why is this so important: many times website owners pay money to have their websites optimized for keywords that no one searches for or have low search volumes.

Knowing what’s hot and what people are searching for and from what location can have a great impact on how you plan your business: content, products, geo-targeting and so on.

How do you stay in touch with your market?

What do you think of all this? Share your way to keep in touch with your market, rising trends in searches, problems people might encounter and so on. If you find this article useful please consider subscribing and receive my blog directly in your e-mail.

These are my thoughts on the relation between the winter holydays and business. I’m not talking about the thing that this is a period of time when you should sell a lot: this is not about that relation. It’s about using Christmas as a moment when you take a deep breath and you think about what you did and what you’ll do.

Without thinking about what you did and what you have to do in order to further develop your business I think you’ll not go to far in terms of business. So, use Christmas as a moment to think:

1. Are you happy with your financial results?
2. What do you think was the most important thing you’ve done this year for your business?
3. What methods you used to market your business on the web?
4. Are you using any social network to help spread your message?
5. How many of your goals did you achieved, this year?
6. How many people did you helped?

Evaluate you and your business and also think about the future:

1. Establish goals for the next year and think about the ways of achieving it
2. Plan your SEO
3. Think about your social media activity
4. Think about the kind of content you’re going to produce
5. Think about how you’re going to help people
6. Don’t set goals that are directly connected to money; things like: increase sells. Consider additional things that in time might get more indirect value/money back; things like increasing the number of subscribers

My 10 ideas for 2010:

1. By the end of January I want to launch my Compete Guide to Keywords (for only $10)
2. Increase the number of my subscribers
3. Increase the number of Fans on my Facebook page
4. Continue helping people with problems related to SEO and Blogging, on my Facebook page
5. Produce new content every day
6. Increase the number of requests for my services and also the number of closed deals
7. Increase the conversion of my Work With Me page from my blog
8. Create a small free guide on general SEO issues that will be offered for free to anyone that subscribes to my newsletter
9. Maintain and develop my current relations on Twitter
10. Stay focused and work hard

What is your take on all this? How do you plan your next moves for the next year? Share your ideas, opinions, experience and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog and you’ll receive my daily articles in your e-mail.

Some of you may recall my other article about “10 SEO Tips for Wordpress – the Basics” which I highly recommend you to read if you’re interested in the basic operations that will improve the SEO performance of your Wordpress website/blog. This article deals with another important aspect of your web activity and that is building content.

Everyone knows that content is what will get you traffic, rankings, conversions, clients, awareness, brand and so on. Without content you are nothing on the web. And the sooner you realize this you’ll be able to benefit from understanding how to plan your content and how to implement a good SEO strategy for content development.

The Plan

Every Wordpress blog starts with an idea that will lead to a plan and in the end to a blog. Doing SEO for your Wordpress blog is pretty much the same thing you do for any website but there are some particular aspects that make the task a little more interesting.

A blog means new content on a regular basis. New content means new ideas about how to describe your products, how to answer to people’s problems, how to present your business as a problem solver and so on. Building new content it’s not easy, if you try to always offer some kind of benefit to your reader.

Without a plan your SEO efforts to have a well optimized Wordpress blog will be governed by chance. If you don’t have a plan on what to write about and how to do it then it’s like building a house without knowing if you want a first floor or not.

The Beginning

There is a strong connection between content and keywords. Identify the problems your product solves, identify the keywords people search to find solutions to these problems, group the keywords in pyramid structures and plan your content for each pyramid.

A pyramid structure means that you have a main keyword at the top and more levels with long tail keywords that are related to each other and to the top keyword. The foundation of each pyramid will be formed by synonyms and related single words that you’ll use in your articles and in some in anchor texts.

Another important element of the pyramid structure is the fact that there is a link between each level and between elements. This will have to be reflected in your articles: plan a linking structure that will help all the articles in the pyramid. A good thing to remember is not to link all your articles to the main one.

Building articles in groups that are connected will have a great effect on your Wordpress blog. It will help your SEO and user functionality because of the fact that this way you can cover multiple aspects of the same problem and you can also deal with more particular issues.

The Opinion

Now, it’s your turn to tell me what you think of this pyramid method. How do you create your content? How do you plan it? How do you try to stay on top? Share your experience in comments bellow.

I think that having a Facebook page for your business is an absolute must. I think that a Facebook page is much more productive and offers real benefits when it comes about building a community and creating an interaction with people that are really interested in your services/products than other social networks.

Promote your Facebook Page – Spread the Word

Now, just because you create a Facebook page doesn’t mean that automatically people will discover you and become your fans. You have to spread the word about it on all the channels you already use for your business.

And one of those channels is your own website or blog. You can promote your Facebook page just like you promote your Twitter account or YouTube account: with a social icon that links to your Facebook page. It’s nothing wrong in doing it like this.

However you have a second option that offers much more information about your Facebook page and that is using a Facebook Fan Box. If you watch the video from the beginning of the article you’ll learn all that you need but I also decided to write some lines about it.

Here are the simple steps on how to do it

1. Log in to your Facebook page
2. Click the Edit link
3. In the right side of your screen you’ll find Promote With a Fan Box link
4. Click the link and setup your Fan Box (in a simple visual way)
5. Copy the code and use it on your blog
6. If you have a Wordpress blog you can use the script in two ways:
   1. Place it in a Text Widget
   2. Place it directly in your theme sidebar code. The down side of this second method is that when you change the theme you’ll also have to insert the code into the new theme
      NOTE: the script has a parameter called width. The minimum should be about 300px so that the Fan Box will look ok. You might need to adjust it to fit your sidebar. My advice is not to place it in a narrow style sidebar

Did you find it useful?

I just want to know from you if you find this information useful and also if you have other related questions. Share your ideas and thoughts in comments bellow.

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