Get Savvy with Social Networks

Sites such as Digg, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace are great sites for networking, chatting, and catching up with old friends. But, these sites can also be valuable marketing tools as well. If you know a bit about search engine optimization and great content, you can use all of these sites to your advantage.

How?

If you plan to go the social networks route, get ready to spend a lot of time online. Building up your clientele is possible via these sites, but it is not a simple task. You will have to spend hours networking, joining groups, and writing educational content. Is it worth it in the end?

Many modern marketers swear by these networking sites. Those that put time and effort into building up their online presence often see quick results. Still, you have to know how to use a site properly in order to gain anything from it. Here are some fast tips:

->NETWORK : as in real life, you will have to find key players online that you can network with. Join discussion groups, speak with those in your industry, and connect with important decision makers. The trick here is to find only those people that can increase your business - in short, don’t add every person you know to your page.

->TIP-TOE : don’t start selling your business right away online. If you come off as trying to pitch your product, people will turn away from you quickly. Instead, spend some time on a site, begin to meet people, voice honest opinions, get your name out there, and then start to talk about your own business.

->BLOG : set up a blog that contains recent, informative, articles. Now, some people tend to include lots of SEO (search engine optimization) keywords into their blog articles, but this must be done with skill. You don’t want people to know that you are trying to increase site traffic.

The Art of the Article

If you have never been gifted with words (or a keyboard), don’t try and write your own articles - this can lead to immediate disaster. Articles that are full of misspelled words, typos, and errors will not put you in a professional light.

Instead, hire a professional writer to compose articles for you blog weekly, monthly, or daily. These writers have been working with the web for a long time, and they know how to gain attention. If you wish to incorporate search engine optimization efforts into your site, simply inform your hired writer.

However, if you think that you have spelling and grammar down to a science, go ahead and write your own articles. Just remember that you want to gain readers that trust your opinion, so skip the sales jargon and stick with information that actually helps clients.

Social networks provide a lot of opportunity for those that know how to use them effectively. To begin using these sites, start by spending some time reading what other contributors are writing. Then, start your own blog or social network profile and begin to introduce your product, services, and business philosophies.

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SEO Web Design & SEO Service

SEO, or search engine optimization, serves a purpose by not only boosting web traffic to your website, but also as a service that most companies need. Without the use of professional studies, but by day-to-day research of your own, most people find a website for the first time by searching through a search engine. For the company or individual who created the website, developing a search engine friendly website is a necessity, rather than an option. A website is not effective if no one can locate it. A low ranking website equals low visitation and zero revenue. As more people have learned about this topic, the need for SEO Services has increased. SEO services and SEO web design work hand-in-hand in designing powerful, visible websites.

It’s likely that every major U.S. city has a SEO services company not far from them. Not every SEO Services company is alike though. So for those working in web design or web development, it is important to perform research to find out the range of SEO web design services offered at a particular SEO services company.

What to Look For When Selecting SEO Services

SEO web design is currently a hot selling draw for businesses and individuals. SEO services should include a team of search engine optimization experts who have a proven track record of success. As a webmaster or individual who seeks to employ an SEO services company for SEO web design, it’s important to consult with the company to strategize a plan of action. You should already have an idea of what you would like your website to illustrate. At your first consultation discuss budget, ways to improve your ranking and have the SEO services company design a personalized analysis and package of their marketing services. Some services do not require a long contract or upfront setup fees (you pay after seeing results). Inquire about the need for paid advertising services like pay-per-click and work together to establish realistic goals for improving rank.

A great SEO services company will house a team of SEO web design experts who provide the latest technology to boost traffic, while reducing some Internet marketing costs. SEO services companies should also offer an excellent account management staff, client testimonials with high success rates and proven SEO web design methods that are not currently banned on any search engines.

Basic Web Design vs. SEO Web Design

Internet marketing is an area of web development that should be heavily catered to and comprehensive. Services such as web statistics, search engine optimization and branding help to intensify visibility, revenue and placement of websites.

A basic web design package could include Flash, a content management system, logo design and graphic design. SEO web design is different in that its purpose is specifically for competing on the Internet in terms of ranking. Not to say that other websites aren’t produced to get noticed, but SEO services have been established because SEO web design is a customized area that requires in depth conceptual design and implementation techniques. A professionally designed SEO web design package should cover optimization of content, links, keywords, meta and alt tags, as well as attractive design, crisp, high-resolution photography or graphics, easy navigation and well written web copy.

Anyone can design a pretty website with moving objects and music. These days websites and online businesses want results, high visibility and revenue. Hiring an SEO web design expert does not have to exhaustive or complicated. SEO web design is an art that requires focus, the latest technology and a true search engine optimization imple

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Alexa: What it is and How it Can Help Your Website

Alexa is a web-ranking service that measures the traffic a website generates by looking at both the number of times a website is viewed per day, as well as the overall “reach.” Alexa rating is important because many advertisers and webmasters look at it as a way to determine the value of a link on the website. As a result, managing your Alexa rank is important if you are looking to use link advertisements as a way to generate money. With this in mind, the following are a few strategies for increasing a website’s Alexa rank.

Increase the Proportion of Your Visitors that Use Alexa

Alexa determines its rankings based on the number of users and site views from those who transmit data via the Alexa toolbar, also known as Sparky. The Alexa toolbar is commonly installed on a browser, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer. As a result, visitors only count towards your Alexa ranking if they have the toolbar downloaded and installed. Increasing your appeal to these users will rapidly result in your website moving up the rankings.

One group that often uses the Alexa toolbar is webmasters and other people interested in web design. Developing content of interest to webmasters and encouraging webmaster visits will greatly aid in increasing a site’s Alexa ranking. Another group that appears to have a great number of Alexa users is users in East Asia, based on the presence of several Asian websites in the Alexa top 500. Advertising on Asian social networking sites may help increase the number of visitors with the Alexa toolbar enabled.

Increase traffic

The best way to increase traffic, long-term, is to develop quality content that leads to a strong base of users who visit frequently. Aside from this, a few inexpensive Payperclick advertisements, such as those offered by Google, Yahoo or Exactseek, will increase traffic, and thus, your Alexa ranking. You may target keywords to audiences who may have a higher likelihood of possessing the Alexa toolbar, such as webmasters and other Alexa-heavy groups. An alternative suggestion to this is buying banners or links from webmaster forums and websites.


It’s also possible to hire forum posters to mention your site or include it in their signature. Posters for hire (as they are called) can be found at forums such as Digital Point and other webmaster forums. Adding an Alexa page in which you can link to and post new content on Alexa will also help generate hits on Alexa.

Optimize your hits to score on Alexa

The easiest and most obvious method of doing this is to install the Alexa toolbar on your own computer and make your website the homepage. Other methods of doing this is to change all links to your website to the following format: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect? which may help increase your Alexa ranking.

For particularly popular portions of your website, add an Alexa widget or Widget graph at the bottom, and uses the Alexa redirect for internal URL links. In addition, it is sometimes possible to get a nearby cybercafe or other major business to install the Alexa toolbar on their computers and to make your website their homepage.

Alexa is not a perfect tool for measuring your website’s traffic, but it is one used by many advertisers. As a result, it is critical for any site’s monetization strategies. While there is only so much that you can do to manipulate your rankings, a few simple techniques can help boost the way your website is ranked.

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SEO: More than Meets the Eye (of a search bot)

If you are starting a website, coming up at the top of a search engine results is a must, and doing so in a cost effective, organic method is most ideal. To this end, you may be considering SEO (Search Engine Optimization). But did you know that getting hits on Google requires more than just optimizing your site for the right keywords? There are a lot of ways to ensure that you are found with ease and relevance when someone is searching the web for products or services similar to your own. Let us take a closer look at some of the key methods of achieving higher rankings in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

1. Raise Your Profile

The easy way to do this is to launch a blog. Launching a blog not only allows you to plug in keyword, helping you get hits, but it gives you a chance to cross-promote and generate authority on the web. Not only will this help raise traffic on the web, but periodic articles will enhance your SEO and raise the chances that when someone is scanning the web, they will come up with you as a result.

In addition to, or instead of, starting a blog, you can try to cross-promote. A great way to do this is to profile prominent figures and bloggers in your field. Not only will including other notable people and companies increase your SEO, it offers many opportunities to increase your hits via tapping into the audience that supports the figure with whom you are profiling.

In addition, including information on other significant companies, websites, and bloggers, will not only increase your SEO, but will encourage them to provide links and profiles of your website, giving you additional back links and traffic. No one can resist free exposure, especially if it is high level, and it serves two purposes, not only will it increase your SEO and hits, but it gives the blogger a reason to mention you, which will only add to your hits per month.

2. Maximize Your Content

SEO will enhance the number of links pointing to your website that you receive. Maximizing the number of times your website is mentioned on the internet can dramatically help the number of hits you get and will go beyond any other SEO technique. A great way to maximize your SEO and thus, your web traffic, is through article directories. Not only will article directories provide you with one way backlinks and greatly enhance your SEO, but nothing increases the number of hits your site receives like multiple entries on a search engine that aren’t from your domain. In addition, many article directories possess substantial PR’s, thus their links can not only be of great value to your own PR, but their audience will also increase the traffic and readership. This is a win-win situation for any webmaster.

3. Control Your Content

Maximize your SEO by controlling the top hits that come up on a search of your site or your name by controlling the keyword density of your content. Anything negative about you or your site? Push those hits off the front page by creating several pages and entries that will preempt those hits to the back pages of a search by the influx of new and positive content. Controlling the hits that show up on a Google search is a key technique of SEO.

SEO goes beyond simply including specific keywords, and maximizing your hits requires several techniques. By increasing and controlling your presence on the web, you can make sure that when your target audience is searching for you, they will find you with ease.

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5 Additional Tips to Getting Listed in Yahoo’s Directory

If you are an avid rexseo reader, you may have already digested our previous article on inclusion in the Yahoo search directory. However, 5 tips were not enough and we have further expounded upon the tips to optimize inclusion in Yahoo’s directory. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!

=> Tip 5

Draw attention to your site’s unique content in your directory submission. Add value to the Yahoo directory by calling attention to unique aspects of your online business. Make sure you have unique content on your site and highlight it in the 25-word description or the extra comments field in the Yahoo directory submission form.

=>Tip 6

Get a virtual domain name for your company; (http://www.yourcompany.com) Yahoo wants legitimate organizations and companies listed in their directory. They tend to look negatively toward small start-up companies without domain names. These often dissolve before the coming year, leaving Yahoo with dead links to a URL in their directory. A virtual domain helps show Yahoo your business is legitimate and you are a serious business owner.

=>Tip 7

Try to get listed in one of Yahoo’s regional directories first. Commercial web sites must pay an annual fee to be listed in the Yahoo directory. If you are in one of the regional areas, you can often get your web site listed much faster in the regional directory than in Yahoo’s main directory.

=>Tip 8

Try to design your site for fast download speed.
While exception apply, primarily Yahoo is looking for sites that download very quickly, preferably in within 30 seconds on a dial-up modem.

=>Tip 9

Make sure your site looks and sounds like a legitimate business. Yahoo wants legitimate business listings that have unique content to add value to their directory.

=> Tip 10

Make sure your web site is easy to read, easy to navigate, easy to find on search engines.

Finally, be sure you have fully educated yourself about the directory submission process before submitting to Yahoo’s directory. This is crucial to ensure you maximize the amount of traffic that will be directed to your site from the Yahoo directory.

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