I have been creating and operating web sites for the past 3 years. I have developed a proven method of getting the sites I run into the search engines quickly. I then use that same method to help get them to rank well for a small number of keywords, allowing the buoyancy effect to come into play for the rest of the site when one or two keywords ranks very high. This is the cornerstone of my search engine ranking strategy. In case you were not aware, when one or two keywords rank well within a given site, many secondary keywords enjoy a buoyancy effect and rank higher due to the high rankings of the main keywords. This cost effective keyword marketing has saved my clients tens of thousands of dollars in SEO fees over the years while receiving terrific organic rankings.

When getting ready to release a new site I will initially review a few characteristics of the site. The first things I look for on the main pages are the existence of the tags known as H1 and H2 surrounding text on the home page. The reason for the tags is that the search engine spiders will instantly look at text contained inside of the tags to determine the overall theme of the web site. When the correct process is used to highlight the text and tags are used to support them, the search engines have a very easy time determining what the site is about and itmore quickly determine if the site should be included when they encounter users looking for terms that are on your website.

As an additional part of the keyword ranking factors, I look for anchor text being used in the text on the home page. I have gained better rankings for lots of websites by having them remove images where the important message of the site, what it is all about, is embedded in the image. The simple fact is that, while the images may appear to offer a better look and feel for the site, the search engines cannot read images and pull text away from the image, so it is not worthwhile to put the important message of the site in the image. I always suggest that they use an image with less size and that text be in a prominent position so that the user can click and go instantly to the point of interest.

I to see the site have a single page for each keyword being used. The search engines enjoy quickly going to unique pages that are called the same as the keyword they are targeting. A page written for a wedding photographer should place some text in anchor text links on the main page for a wedding photographer leading them to a page called www.anysite.com/wedding-photographer.htm. The search engines will know exactly what to do with that link and can quickly give it the right theme to work with.

The very next task I undertake it remove all underscores and replace them with dashes. I have heard, seen and witnessed countless examples of pages not being indexed as well because of the use of underscores. I cannot explain why (I do not know) but I know that this is an issue and should be avoided. Two pages that have almost identical names, wedding-photographer.htm and wedding_photographer.htm , will not score equally in the search engines, all else remaining equal. It has been proven time and again so please stay away from it.

Do you want to know what the search engines think the theme of your site is? The most consistently proven method of gaining this information is to use the Google Keyword Tool (type that phrase into a search engine). You will quickly be granted inside information as to what Google thinks your site is about when you look at the terms it returns. Many customers that I work with are shocked to gain the knowledge that the search engines do not think the site is even remotely close to what they intended and we go through a process of fixing the view from the search engine’s perspective. We do that by using links that contain no follow terms built into them and by highlighting keywords with H1 and H2 tags. The situation can quickly be turned around so please do not worry if your site is not what you think.

Article marketing is one of the ideal ways to drive targeted traffic for your website and improve your search engine rankings. In this article we are going to elaborate how you could use article marketing to generate traffic for your website.

If you’re not interested in article marketing, but would like another internet marketing related article, I highly recommend this article on Social Networking.

Article Marketing

Maybe you have encounter article directories such as Ezinearticles.com or Goarticles.com in your browsing on the internet. These article directories are full of articles written by various website owners and at the end of each article you will find an author bio box which tells you who the author is as well as having a link to their website. This is called as article marketing, it uses articles distributed through article directories in order to generate traffic for the person’s website and that traffic could also be sent to your website if you begin using article marketing.

Importance of Keyword Optimization in Article Marketing

In order to get the most out of your article marketing it is important to use keyword optimization in your articles. This means that you select right keywords that have a high search volume but relatively low competition. You could use keyword research tools such as Wordtracker, Overture and Google’s Keyword tool to have this information. In order to see how many competing pages there are simply key-in the keyword phrase into the search box and see how many pages the search engine lists. Once you have opted these keywords include them throughout your article, in your article title and preferably in bold somewhere near the top of the article – this would improve your article’s ranking on the search engines.

Article Marketing – Improve Your Search Engine Optimization

Article Marketing could improve your search engine optimization in many ways. The first is that by optimizing your article for keywords you are optimizing it for the search engines and so the link to your website will be close the top of the search engines by seeing your article first and then from there people could visit your website. Article marketing is also good for creating links to your website by other websites printing your articles on their websites. The search engines regard links a vital factor in measuring the importance and rank of your website and so by distributing your articles you are further able to improve your search engine rankings.

Most people who get information on the internet will utilize the search engines to do so and by improving your search engine rankings you are a lot more likely to drive traffic for your website.

Drive Traffic through Other Webmasters

Aside from generating traffic through improved search engine optimization caused by article marketing, you can also generate traffic by other webmasters placing your articles with your resource box on their website. This means that when they do their marketing and pull visitors to their website that those visitors will find your link and so they will generate traffic for your website as well.

Article Marketing - Automatic and Manual Submission to Generate Traffic

Do you utilize automatic submission softwares for your articles or do you manually submit articles for article marketing? There are pros and cons to both ways of submission and you will have to decide for yourself whether you need to use automatic submission, manual submission or both to generate traffic with article marketing. Automatic submission is a ideally faster and you will have your articles to a lot more directories than you would be doing it manually but your articles will not be as targeted and will probably not rank as highly on the search engines. Manual submission is a lot slower and you would probably only be able to focus on a number of directories but you will be able to target your articles better and get better search engine rankings for your articles.

The Best Article Directories to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Whether you are manually submitting articles or whether you are using automatic submission there are several article directories which you should manually submit your articles to for great results and to generate traffic to your website. The first of these article directories is Ezinearticles.com. Ezinearticles.com is ranked so highly on Google and by posting an article on their directory it is a lot easier to have good search engine results. Another one of these article directories is Goarticles.com which also gets a fairly high ranking.

In conclusion, article marketing is an excellent step to generate traffic for your website as you not only benefit from developed search engine rankings but also from visitors pulled to other webmasters websites and through that to your website. In order to make good articles for article marketing you must focus on keyword optimization and enjoyable content that people like to read. You can submit these articles manually or automatically but it is ideal to include a manual submission to Ezinearticles.com and Goarticles.com in your submission program.

Peter Holmes is an Internet Entrepreneur who specializes in Event Launch Marketing applying social media and internet marketing strategies. “he initially started writing to attract traffic to his websites and has since become hooked”.

If you enjoyed this article you will enjoy this blog post on Social Bookmarking.

What to Do and What NOT to Do When Reciprocating Traffic to Promote Your Blog

Some mockingly call it as the mutual admiration society and wherein people praise – and link to – each other in order to generate traffic. No matter how way you look at it, reciprocating traffic works not just for promoting websites but blogs as well. Here are several dos and don’ts to take note of if you’re in the mood for sharing some love with your fellow bloggers.

How to Reciprocate Traffic for Blog Promotion

Reciprocating is easier than you think. You just have to take note of what other bloggers are doing for you and return the favor. If you have mastered for example the art of how to create a newsletter, reciprocating is peanuts for you. Of course, you can also consider initiating things by being the first to post a comment, include a link in your directory, respond with a blog entry, or review another blog.

As long as what you’re doing places focus on you and the other blogger, you’re doing the right thing!

Make your reciprocation valuable

If you are going to reciprocate a favor, be sure to make it valuable and meaningful for the other blogger. It would simply be a waste of web space if all you’re going to say is hi and goodbye. If that’s what you’re going to do, it’s best not to reciprocate at all.

Think about which areas you can make the greatest contributions – pages which, even better, the other blogger would appreciate to gain more traffic for. Look for questions that coincide with your fields of expertise.

Make it mutually beneficial

Reciprocity is not merely an exchange of links. It also includes mutual acknowledgment – and maybe even recommendation – of each other’s expertise. When you post a comment or display a link in your website, make sure that the information you provide not only reflects positively on the other blogger but on yourself as well.

Pay attention to house rules

Reciprocation means visiting another person’s blog and as they say, when in Rome, it’s important to do as the Romans do. Every blog has its own set of house rules and you must pay attention to them. One example of house rules is the inclusion of links in your comments. Some bloggers prefer not to have any links displayed without their express permission.

Acts of rudeness commonly result from simple misunderstanding and ignorance of rules. If you’re unsure about your statement, you can always email the other blogger and ask for confirmation.

Don’t be condescending

It’s easy to be so without even being aware of it. When you are visiting a blog that’s less popular than yours, don’t act or speak in such a way that you’ve made it very clear to everyone the other blogger should be grateful for you little act of reciprocation. That’s a big no-no to do, and you’re sure to receive unpleasant feedback even if it’s true. Such things are better left unsaid.

Always return the favor

Last but not the least, remember to return every favor you receive! This is the golden rule of all golden rules and to violate once or several times is something that no Internet marketer forgets. Soon, tales of your infamy will spread and you shouldn’t be surprised if the popularity of your blog starts declining.

Regardless of how much or how little you’ll benefit from reciprocating the favor, do it anyway. It’s called good business!

Web Review sites are popping up all around the net at a pace which is hard to keep up with. Why is this the case? Is there lots of money to be gotten from them or are the owners making these sites up for altruistic reasons?

In a nutshell, there are a myriad of them because it’s good for business. Whatever business you are involved in, review sites are becoming an ever more important part of your marketing tactics. We are now in a world which is getting more and more distracting through a huge array of choices put forth to us all the time.

We as a consumer society just do not have enough time to carefully research the purchase choices we want to make and as a result we need to make shortcuts in our decision making process.

Think about the last hight price item you bought. Did you pull out the wallet on a whim and go for it. I’m betting not - I’m betting you probably probed your friends and colleagues to solicit their input and see if they had previously bought the item in question.

You were looking for their advice and their opinions count.

Whether you like it or not, we are all very similar when it comes to this buying decision making activity. We are at heart a “marketing herd” and are persuaded by other peoples outlook - even the opinions of complete strangers!

There are reviews on pretty much every conceivable subject known to the world, from cause-related marketing all the way through to the best types of cameras you should purchase. You can perform a quick search on any search engine and you are next to guaranteed to locate some useful reviews in next to no time.

Does this mean you trust all the reviews you come across? Of course not. There are lots of of people out there giving reviews with their own hidden agendas. You cannot rely chiefly on the word of a single review. Instead, you need to put the review in context, try to get a few more reviews (you might want to put in some more searches with keywords like “scam” for example to find some alternative points of view.

Review sites work, have worked and will continue to work because they provide us the easy promise of discovering useful information about something we are interested in and protecting the most valuaeable resource we have - our time.