SEO Hosting Blog

If you want more people to organically link to your website, more visitors to your website and more buzz about your brand, here are ten tips for increasing the viralness of your brand and website:

Don’t Forget About Forums: In the age of Facebook, it’s seems like internet marketers have gotten the idea that they are too cool for forums.  Although Web 2.0 style social networking can be a great way to promote your brand and website, forums are actually more popular than ever before.  As people spend more time on the Internet, they become more comfortable participating in activities such as forums.  The great thing about forums is that they attract people who are really passionate about a specific topic.  Therefore, if you invest some time and become an active member of a forum community, you can begin promoting yourself to the types of people that will go out and tell others about your brand and website.

Create a List: Sure, you may see internet marketing blogs complaining that Top Ten lists are overused, but outside of that extremely small percentage of people, the general population finds Top Ten (or any other number) lists to be very useful.  I mean, this is a Top Ten list and it obviously has your attention!
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If I had to name one problem that I have come across with almost every small business website I’ve worked with (or visited for that matter), it’s this: a lack of content.  When a small business makes the decision to finally get a website for themselves, it seems that they almost all follow the same path: they end up hiring a web design firm to create their site, and instead of getting a content rich website, they get a bloated website with little content but a lot of unnecessary graphics.
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All you have to do is read a few online forums to hear people complaining about how they’ve tried SEO with no success. They’ve given up on the idea of SEO as an effective brand building tool. The question we have to ask is “Why did their SEO efforts fail?” It could have been unsuccessful for any number of reasons, but here are a few of the most common causes of an unsuccessful SEO strategy.

1. Wrong Keywords- One reason your SEO efforts might be falling short is the keywords you’re targeting aren’t the right ones. Keyword selection is a difficult process that requires a deep knowledge of SEO. If you choose a keyword that is too popular, you’ll be unable to compete with the others targeting the same phrase. On the other hand, if you target a keyword too obscure, no one will ever search for it. The key is to find long tail keywords with little competition but decent search volume.
2. Infrequent Updates- Search engines have a passion for fresh content. They crave fresh content because it keeps their results relevant. For this reason, it’s crucial that you give the search engines the new content they desire. Updating your website regularly shows both the search engines and your website visitors that your company is active and worth their trust.
3. No Inbound Links- Inbound links are an important measure of a website’s worth. The most trusted websites have high quality, inbound links pointed to their content. If no one is linking to your site, you’ll have a difficult time convincing the search engines you should rank well for your keywords. Learn some basic link building techniques to build authority for your website.
4. Lack of Patience- We’re an instant gratification country. We want results, and we want them now. Unfortunately, that’s not always the way SEO works. SEO is a process that requires your long term commitment. Think of it as the snowball effect: the longer you maintain your SEO plan, the greater the results will be.
5. Boring Content- Dry, keyword stuffed content might be the leading cause of failed SEO strategies. Too many website owners get so focused on writing for the search engines that they forget about the humans who will be reading their website. The bottom line is it doesn’t matter how well you rank if your content doesn’t resonate with your target audience. Make sure your SEO writing is targeting the right audience, and your SEO efforts will start to really pay off.

Common in the insurance business you will hear things like the 80/20 plan. What that means is some insurance plans will cover 80% of the bill while leaving you with the remaining 20% balance. With Internet marketing, I have coined my own 80/20 plan and indeed put it into practice.

My business is mainly in developing niche sites that are run using WordPress. I write content that targets very high paying keywords in Google AdWords. My content indeed is very well written, unique, useful, entertaining and informative. The goal in mind though is to monetize it using Google AdSense. Some content I write that targets certain keyword phrases need a little more boost than others. Most of my content targets longtail keywords. However, some do not and need additional love.

The 80/20 plan that I follow is very simple. I invest 20% of my time writing content and 80% of my time marketing it. Depending on the strength of competition of the keyword phrases I am targeting will dictate the level of depth I go into marketing each article or page I create. For me, Internet marketing is a primary method of promoting my content on the Internet. It combines two elements: search engine marketing and social network marketing. Read the rest of this entry »

So many people are concerned with how well their sites and pages rank in the search engines. Time and time again, I get questions sent to me via email and instant message asking the same thing. “Garry, can you please take a look at my site and tell me if it is search engine friendly?” or, “Garry, how come my site doesn’t rank for the keywords I want?” or, “Garry, where do I start with learning more about search engine optimization?”

With the obvious demand for a better understanding of search engines, how to rank in them and how to market your content in them, here is a search engine checklist that I believe you’ll find helpful. It is a simple Yes/No checklist. The more questions that you can answer yes, the more you’re on your way to search engine traffic bliss! Drop a comment with your scores if you’d like. Read the rest of this entry »