Lead Gen, Associate, and SEO Guru Adam Torkildson

I’ve been focused on helping web sites rank in the number one position for nearly a decade. As a result I’ve read and seen a lot of information published on SEO that is either totally inaccurate or validated with actual research. The good news is that I’ve sorted through a lot of this information to help you identify the best SEO strategies.

Having worked directly with hundreds of web sites I have discovered techniques for optimizing web sites that actually work. I often get question about SEO such as, “what is the one technique that works better than all others?” A difficult question to answer because I have found a number of techniques that are truly effective.

The first search engine ranking factor has to do with the anchor text of all inbound links to your website. Google and other search engines use the anchor text from other sites linking in to determine what your site is about and what it should rank well for. If websites link in only using a URL, and not your keywords in the anchor text, email them and ask them to update your link. The link should always appear with your most important keywords.

The second most important ranking factor is using keywords in your title tag and other meta tags. Meta tags still have an impact on your search rankings. Although the weight of meta tags may be minimal, they are effective in categorizing your page and identifying what search engines should expect to find when they spider web site pages. Make sure your tags are constructed properly and include you keywords.

The third ranking factor to consider for your web site is link popularity. This phrase has been talked about in search engine circles for a while but can be equated with Page Rank. The concept of Page rank or link popularity for that matter take a number of factors into consideration to identify the quality of web pages from an external perspective. The largest factor that influences search engine rankings is the number and quality of links that are pointing to a web site or web page.

The fourth ranking factor is the diversity of domains that link to your web site. For many search engines, its not only what links you have to your site but making sure they are from different domains. This represents more popularity associated with you web site and therefore is judged to be a better search result. When link building, try to focus on generating inbound links from different websites.

The fifth ranking factor you want to consider is having your keywords in your domain. I know that it’s pretty difficult to do so, but at the very least, make sure that your keywords are in the subdomain or folder one step away from your domain. This place the keyword in proximity to your page and can support higher rankings.

Each of the five factors mentioned above are some of the most effective I have seen over more than a decade of online marketing. Focus on inbound links that are formatted properly, link popularity, and domains. By doing so you can dramatically improve the overall effectiveness of your search engine optimization efforts.

Michael Fleischner is the Author of SEO Made Simple and offers SEO training for small and medium sized businesses. Be sure to get free search engine optimization and Internet marketing support at the Internet marketing forum

Wondering how to get your website seen? If you are a small business with big plans you probably had a website built and expected the orders to roll in. You may have already tried some Pay Per Click advertising and even paid to be listed in some online directories.

By now, you have most likely figured out that people shopping online do not want to go through a directory to find you. They go through search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN Live. They type in a keywords and phrases that describe what they want and the search engines give them a list of websites, starting with what the search engine believes is the most relevant result.

Being in the first group of results is what will bring traffic to your website. It doesn’t matter what you have to offer, the key to success online is to be found on the first page of these search results when someone is looking for what you have to offer.

The great thing about those search results is that they are working every hour of every day. The bad thing is that if you cant be found in those top few results, your neighbor across the street could be looking for what you have to offer and they’ll never find you.

Things that you have used in the past for traditional business experience, are pretty much useless online. Before the internet, businesses might have spent thousands of dollars per month on Yellow page advertising. When the internet first went public that business had to be sure that those ads pointed to their website. After only a few years, most families don’t even know where their phone book is anymore.

If you have a traditional store, say sports equipment, you may have a few selections for athletic shoes. In your store you may display these shoes according to cost. The typical online shopper is not looking for every shoe you have to offer. They are searching for one brand and one style at every store that offers that one shoe.

In a small town, a local store owner is probably complaining that he has a specific item that he bought from his supplier, and that it will not sell until he discounts it at the end of the season. However, this same item is being sold in the big city and has customers lining up around the block hoping to get a chance to buy this specific item as soon as it is delivered.

Putting his inventory online allows the kids in the big city to find the shoes they want regardless of what small town store has them. It takes a bit to wrap your head around the concept, but suffice it to say that the online shopper is going to be more specific about what they are looking for and they dont really care where your store actually is as long as you can get the product they want delivered to them.

If you are a traditional store that wants to sell your products online, instead of trying to sell things online that you can not move in your store, it is going to be vital to your success to offer your products from the top down. Your website needs to promote your products in an appealing way. A good SEO will be able to match up the hottest searches performed and help you target your campaign by researching products.

Again, just having a cool website is not enough. You are going to need to build that website in a Search Friendly manner. Lets use the shoes one more time. Say you put a great picture of the latest shoe on your website. It is the very one that kids across the country would go get a job for. But if all you have is a picture, the Search Spider cant read your picture. It is not human. It searches for text. Text in the form of Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and in the form of content on your page. These are spider food.

The Search Spider searches your site, following your linking structure and recording what it finds then it takes it back to the Search Engine Database. The Search Engine then runs that data through its algorithm to determine what searches your might be relevant to your site and how relevant your data is compared to other websites it has recorded.

What does this mean? The world has changed and is more advanced than it was 10 or even 5 years ago. It has changed in ways we could not ever predict. If we had computers in the eighteen hundreds, they would have predicted that every city in America would now be twenty feet deep in horse manure.

Your website is proof that you are trying to be a contender in the new way of doing business. Now you have to index your site so search engines will find it. Your products will then be identifies and produced as relevant search results when the search is over.

Rather than showing a picture of your product and writing a caption under it that says something like This is a very popular item this year, use specific terms that someone would search for when they are looking for this exact product. This will take a little more effort and refining but diligence and persistence pay off.

The other thing that takes some understanding and patience is to know that the Search Spider does not live on your website. He has other places to go too. You have to allow him time to get around to checking out your changes.

Dont be afraid to do some investigative work on your own. Check out your competition. See how they describe the products on their site. A little homework on your part will also help you get an understanding of what youre up against.

If you are using Pay Per Click advertising they will provide Keyword Suggestion Tools. But please use caution. These tools are really focusing on getting you to pay to show up in as many searches as they can. Although that might sound like exactly what you want too, the truth is that aside from being expensive, if your site does not exactly match to what the searcher is looking for, you are wasting money.

A Search Optimization Service will be help you focus your energy and resources in the areas that will get you more conversions because you will be showing up for the most relevant searches all the time rather than just when you can afford Pay Per Click advertising.

During this economic crisis that stretches across the globe, there are more and more people looking for easier ways to make some money. Placing Google ads for any item, product, or information that can be sold on line, is how to make money using the Internet. The following information will guide an individual in the right direction for an excellent money making opportunity.

All the advertisements that post within Google are computer generated and placed according to the key words used. The selection of which words will be used is the sole responsibility of the advertisement creator. Keep in mind this part of placing the Google ad is the most important, so take as much preparation as needed. Choose simple keywords that get straight to the point of the product that is being advertised.

After the traffic arrives at your business website, make sure you have your pages ready to accept orders. The orders will start rolling in, and you probably will not have a lot of time to make changes to the web pages. This precaution step, can save a lot of time later on down the road.

In some Google tools, a person can get paid every time someone clicks on their ad. This way to make money, will result in a person gaining a click bank account. Click bank accounts only handle payments made for information transfers. In other words, there are no physical goods or services flowing through click bank’s payment processing program. There are a number of guidelines that will need to be followed while using click bank.

Make sure the title of your Google ad is eye catching. This is considered the heading of your advertisement and will grab the audiences attention. Just three or four words are most effective. Also try all capitalization, this raise your advertisement above the others. It may also be possible to add symbols. Some symbols work better at catching a glance with a screen full of Google ads. There will be several related ads, make yours stick out.

Take into consideration there are all types of people in the world. People from all over the globe are going to be searching for your product, now make it easier for them. Put your ad into the words that will make your product basically fall right into the customers lap. The easier it is for people to locate the goods the better the income.

Now that your business promotion is designed, submit it. Then Google ads does all the work. The computer will generate which pages it thinks will help sell the product. Then your advertisement will be listed amongst others on various web pages. The main issue that will determine the success of your businesses sales, will start with which words are chosen, how the ads are worded, then how the computer reads and interprets the placement of the ad.

In conclusion, Google ads is the best technological method of advertising anything that can be sold via the Internet. There is no other method that can challenge the success of properly using the Google ads tool. The success of sales depends on how an advertisement is created and adjusted afterwards.

If you’re looking for help with pay per click marketing for content networks, you’ll have to look long and hard. The cold truth is that few marketers have had success with with advertising on the content network. Moreover, fewer have published information about what they’ve learned. Don’t get discouraged though because succeeding with Google’s content network is now possible.

Most of the experienced gurus in PPC marketing want to sell you there courses and related products to help you understand how to effectively market using Adwords and other popular networks like Yahoo and MSN. Many of these individuals focus on search because that has produced the greatest return for them in the past.

The fact of the matter however is that you can make money on Google’s content network and others with the help of a little knowledge related to profitable content campaigns. Over time, as more marketers began using content to promote their products, new tools and techniques have come to light.

A common technique that is being shared by PPC gurus is the grouping of a specific number of keywords per Adgroup. Many experts suggest that when using the content network, you build your Adgroups with anywhere from twenty-five to fifty related keywords. Why focus on keywords in this quantity? You want to make it easy for Google to figure out the optimal content for displaying your ad. The better the relationship between ad and content, the better your ad will do.

One of the most well known research tools associated with the content network is Content Bully. This product is offered by the same team that developed PPC Bully which extracts the most profitable PPC campaigns based on numerous data elements. Content Bully provides the same level of research, providing guidance on profitable pay per click campaigns via the content network.

Consider using an online tool to help you evaluated which resources can most effectively transform your content network campaigns, resulting in lower costs and higher profitability. As many of you know, the rub with content related campaigns is that it takes a lot of clicks before you can adequately assess a campaign’s effectiveness. This is where online tools like Content Bully come into play. You can focus on implementing your campaigns versus the tedious research of finding the most profitable campaigns.

In addition to finding profitable campaigns, informational tools can help you discover which affiliate products might do well on the Content Network. In general, popular products that have broad appeal do well. This is sometimes due to the amount of content being published related to that particular niche or product category.

After you’ve spent some time researching the ins and outs of content network advertising, it’s time to do your due diligence. Evaluate tools and resources related to PPC marketing. More importantly, become comfortable with content network related advertising tools. Software that specifically address the content network is the most valuable and will be more effective than generic pay-per-click PPC resources. Read review and evaluate thoroughly. Give them a dry run if possible before choosing your content network advertising solution.

It can be difficult to balance all the tasks involved in managing a PPC advertising campaign and even more so if you have to manage a number of campaigns. Because it can be difficult for one person, there are companies who offer PPC advertising campaign management services.

Some of the main things you should consider before hiring a PPC advertising campaign management team are your level of expertise, your budget and the amount of time required.

When managing your PPC advertising campaigns time is crucial. The proper management of a campaign can take a lot of time. If you find yourself falling behind on the upkeep of one or more of your campaigns, you may want to consider hiring a PPC management team. The time you save by offloading your workload will allow you to focus on other aspects of your business which will help you be more profitable.

Expertise is an aspect of PPC advertising campaign management that you should think about. Not everyone is an expert in PPC management and if you are not sure what you are doing you will definitely make mistakes that will cost you money. Also it is very time consuming when you are not sure what you are doing. Under these circumstances it will be better to hire a professional management company.

On this same note, time is immensely important. Managing a PPC advertising campaign can take a tremendous amount of time no matter your level of expertise. When you begin managing multiple campaigns, that time obviously is multiplied. By hiring a team to help handle the tedious aspects of campaign management, you will be able to devote more time to marketing and researching new campaign potentials.

Your budget will also play a part in whether or not you will hire a PPC advertising campaign management service. These companies can cost anywhere from hundreds to even thousands of dollars, depending on how many campaigns they will need to manage. It is often better to set up monthly payments so that you can assess their work each month rather than paying for something up front and being disappointed. You will also have to see what sort of returns you can expect when you hire a company to manage your campaigns.

Before hiring a company you will want to look into their reliability. Reading a mission statement, if available, will help to understand the company’s goals. Also, looking at the “About Us” page will give you an idea of the history of the company. Doing business with a well-established firm can be key.

Another approach to investigating a company is to search for client testimonials. These will show how past and current clients view the services provided by a PPC advertising campaign management company. Whenever possible, try and contact the client and ask your own questions.

When you settle on a company there are some important things to remember. You should always get all agreements on paper. Verbal contracts can be shaky at best and unreliable. When signing a contract be sure to read any and all fine print. You don’t want to be tricked by a loophole on a contract which you didn’t read thoroughly.

By hiring a PPC advertising campaign management team, you can save valuable time and make your campaigns more lucrative. These teams aren’t for everyone though, so make sure to take the above points into consideration.

If you want your PPC advertising campaign to succeed, it will be important to keep tabs on your competition. In doing so, you will be able to figure out which keywords are successful and see how they are bidding. Also, you will be able to learn from their experiences.

You can learn from competitors in a number of ways. Firstly you can check on the keywords they are using. There are software programs that can tell you this. If you run a number of campaigns, or are selling a popular item, you may want to invest in this software. Once you are aware of the keywords competitors are using you can try them out and add variants.

The next learning experience comes from analyzing their bidding on specific keywords. By knowing the competition’s bids, you will be able to calculate a bid which will land you prime positioning for your ad. Remember though, try not to get into bidding wars with the competitors. This can get pricey and sometimes send you well beyond your budget. If a price gets too steep you can always try a variation of that keyword. This will most likely save you some money and can still bring you plenty of sales.

The next advantage you can gain is by keeping tabs on your competitors’ ads. By using the preview tool provided by Google you can see what others’ ads include. While I strongly discourage you from copying information straight from their ads, you can gain valuable ideas by examining their headlines, benefits, and call to action. By examining these aspects from a buyer’s standpoint you will be able to see what works and what doesn’t.

The final thing I recommend looking at is the competition’s landing pages. By following the links in their ads, you can get a good sense of quality layouts and presentation as well as the benefits and bonuses being offered.

Looking at what your competitors are doing with their campaigns should help to inspire you with ideas for your own. With these new ideas combined with your own original ideas in your arsenal, your PPC advertising campaign can be reborn as a much stronger incarnation of itself. A successful manager knows the importance of keeping up with their competitors and making improvements accordingly. No matter how great your campaign is, there is always room for improvement.

Remember if you do not learn from your competitors you will miss out on a lot of valuable tips. You may be quite sure that they will be watching and learning from you. So do not let any opportunity slide by to take a look at your competitors and get free ideas to perfect your PPC advertising campaigns and improve your profits.

A good list of keywords is vital for a successful pay per click campaign. You should be diligent in your research and attempt to find the best keywords. Try to compile a substantial list and leave no stone unturned to be successful.

You are probably wondering how to achieve this? Let us assume that you have chosen the base keyword “loan.” This is a popular keyword. Unfortunately this is a saturated keyword and it is not easy to get a high position for it. To improve your position you should extend your keyword research.

Imagine all the ways that your base keyword can be used. There are several interpretations that a searcher might be looking for when they type in loans. Think of all the different ways searchers may interpret your keyword. Examples are; “getting loan” “house loan,” “bad credit loan” etc.

Of course, these keywords are still only a little different from the keyword you started with. You can expand a lot further while sticking to the basic concept. There are lots of different types of loans out there – mortgages, car loans, home equity loans and more. Mix those in with your first list and discover all the different options for keyword groups that spring from a single simple keyword.

You can also start a campaign made up of lenders names. Added to this you can put .com. a country extension or .net at the end of your keyword. It does not matter that there are no domains with that particular keyword; searchers will still use these domain style keywords and you will get some extra visitors.

Do not use saturated keywords that have a lot of competition bidding on them. Find specialized ones that are derived from the primary keyword. Also make different key phrases from one phrase; “loan bad credit” can be taken from “bad credit loan.” Doing this will attract more searchers.

Campaigns and keywords can be created around the different search keywords that your potential buyers will be looking for. It is wise to try all sorts of different keywords and phrases as searchers can use a wide variety of keywords and phrases.

Begin with serial numbers, plurals, misspelled words, product and domain names. Also do not put spaces between words, as this is a popular typo error with searches.

Company names are good as are domain names and variations on them. You can use adjectives like “best and “cheap. Think about different spellings of keywords.

Web logs are a good source of keywords. These will help you to discover the ones your visitors are using to get to your site.

A successful pay per click campaign is based on a list of good keywords. It is important to explore all avenues before you put your keywords into action.

Bringing traffic in to an e-commerce site can be tricky, particularly if that site is new. On top of that, not all the visitors will be interested in your products or services. This is how a good PPC campaign can help, but bringing targeted visitors to your webpage. However, it’s important to start with a good plan. Without one, you risk losing money on advertising, without bringing in many additional sales.

How To Find The Right Keywords

Successful PPC campaigns start out by finding the right keywords. When people are searching the web and typing in keywords, related ads are often displayed on the right-hand side of the browser. The search engine being used, let’s use Google as an example, then makes money when ads are clicked on. Each time ads are clicked, the engine charges the ad owner for that click.

Good keyword choice means better results and this is very important to remember with pay per click advertising. Just getting as many visitors to your website as you can isn’t enough, you don’t want window shoppers coming through expensive PPC ads. That’s because each of those clicks costs you money. You need to make sure the clicks result in a sale.

Targeting your keywords is very important. Say you’re selling a new pet product, you’ll want to make sure that you use a keyphrase that will reach your intended audience. Consider using “cat collars” as a keyword phrase instead of separate words. The difference? Searchers for “cat books” and “dog collars” won’t get your ad and the chances of a sale are increased because your keywords are targeted.

Get To Know Your Target Audience

You can use many different keywords, but the only way to find out which ones work is through trial and error and keeping records of statistics. Pay close attention to the visitor logs and statistics available so you can find out which ads generate visitors to your site, and which ones get the sales. Keywords that get no clicks, or that generate clicks but don’t convert sales, should be changed by inserting new words or phrases that are more effective. Check each of the ads individually, carefully considering the wording and placement of the ad in question. Think about what your target audience will search for and use that in your keywords.

Create The Right Landing Page

It’s best to create a different landing page for each keyword if at all possible. If you can, that’s fantastic, because it now allows you to optimize specifically for that visitor. Stick to the product you’re selling, some people get greedy and confuse the customer with many products on the landing page. A well designed landing page will give you more sales and bad landing pages will have the opposite effect.

Managing your PPC campaign is all about finding those keywords and making sure your customer has a clear path to it. Pay close attention to all statistics available to you and make changes wherever needed.

The most common method for creating targeted traffic for your site is pay per click advertising, also called PPC. If you use it correctly it could be cost-effective and profitable. And, every year this fast-growing on-line advertising format accounts for around two billion dollars in advertising and the amount continues to increase.

How PPC Advertising Works

Search engines like Google, Yahoo (I’m sure you’ve heard of them) and others create listings. These listings are ranked according to how much advertisers are willing to pay for each click that sends a person to look at their website. The best positions are obtained by competing against others for the keyword (or words) you decide to bid for. The highest bids rank the highest on the various search pages, which are usually placed on the right-hand side of the browser window.

Recent adjustments to the way Google, the largest of the search engines, ranks PPC ads mean that just a high bid won’t guarantee the best spot. Your ad and webpage must also have a high quality score with the search engine. Essentially, Google must think that your ad and your homepage are useful and relevant if you’re going to get good rankings.

From the point of view of some advertisers, this is a bad thing. However, from a user point of view, and from the side of advertisers without as big a budget, this change is welcome. That’s because it ensures more real, relevant ads, and it allows those who write quality ads to be considered for higher rankings.

Making Money Through PCC

Affiliate programs, which pay you a commission by directing customers where you want them to go, are a good way to help your campaign along. PPC campaigns used with affiliate programs direct high levels of traffic instantly via your link. This is an option while you are waiting for your site’s ranking to be increased.

Since PPC is so easily tracked, it allows you to keep a clear record of how much you’re spending on each ad, how much real traffic it’s bringing in, and how many commissions you make. Tracking is vital to success in Internet marketing, as it allows you to discontinue or change ads that aren’t working for you.

Don’t just restrict yourself to using affiliate sites, though. There are other ways to make money, like directing traffic to your own site. After all, what’s the point of having your own site if you don’t promote the thing? Affiliate sites can then come into play again, you can direct traffic to another site from yours, or harness the traffic by developing a database of subscribers for a direct-sell campaign later.

Risks of PPC Advertising

It is important to make sure all your advertising is effective. You will end up losing money on PPC campaigns if you don’t do it right. It is a waste of resources if clicks don’t bring in sales. You will have a great way to earn money online if you know what you are doing when it comes to setting up your campaign and choosing the right products.