Before you leap into a hasty relationship with the wrong keywords, get cozy with your audience and try to place yourself in the mind of your ideal visitor to think how they would think and more importantly to search how they would search.

Finding the top keywords for your niche may require many a few blind dates with questionable outcomes, but the result is well worth the conquest when your pages meet their perfect match.

Millions jump into relationships daily with keywords (PPC and Organic SEO included) that may have been around the block a few times or frankly they want the most popular and obviously more frequented traffic-bearing phrases that yield results.

Not only can this lead to frustration after your countless woos are ignored, you need to make sure you have enough game (in your branding and marketing pitch) to send the right signals.

The First Date:

Selecting the right keywords is like going out on the perfect date and falling in love at first sight, as a result the parallel of keywords to courtship comes to mind.

While testing the relationship and finding the most important keywords for your industry, try curbing your initial expectations until you see how that keyword performs (using statistics and user engagement metrics to evaluate conversion).

Make sure to cover your bases, just in case your targeted keyword doesn’t measures up (by having a few alternatives to interject). But, before you even go there, ensuring your online hygiene is up to par is paramount. The last thing you want is a click and run because your online breath was kicking.

Grooming:

If you want to impress your keywords and the traffic they bear, make sure your pages are well groomed in order to make the right first impression for those who may follow them back to your site.

Just like in the real world your website should follow certain guidelines to emulate appeal and has a discriminant “feel good” affect at first sight.

Just you need to make sure your hair is groomed (optimize your titles), make sure your teeth are brushed (your navigation informative and easy to use), your nails manicured (your images relevant), a touch or perfume or cologne to set the mood (your content is appealing) and by all means, mind your fashion statement (your template should not look like the lovechild of Myspace & Angelfire), that is, if repeat traffic is important to you.

Here are a few tips for landing the perfect ratio / relationship of content, promotion and links:

1. Start simple, evaluate the most searched keywords using a keyword research tool.

2. Look for key phrases that have overlapping connotations. Pairing the top keywords with the appropriate modifiers can generate more exposure than just obsessing over one top ranking phrase.

3. Don’t overlook root phrases, people still use the terms company, services, professional, expert, examples, how to and many other out of the way modifiers. The more you optimize (when your on to the right scent) the more relevant traffic your pages receive.

4. Using a combination of the right domain name, the right titles, carefully crafted content, an appealing template/design and the right series of back links can cut to the chase and put your site in the top 100 with very little effort. From there, aging and authority combined with a consistent content development strategy is a winning formula that can elevate your content into the top 10 if managed properly.

5. Once you have a top 10 position, leverage that position until you have 5 more, then 10 more, etc. Just like the buddy system, once your pages are anchored in a relevant niche, search engines look to your content first (if your pages have authority) to see if you have anything worth noting when those queries are entered in the search box.

In closing please note, that traffic is only one part of the equation. Quality over quantity (for content, keywords and links) is the key to a successful search friendly site, but above all else minding your appearance and tidying things up a bit can do more for conversion which is above else the real reason your in business to begin with.

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Smith is an seasoned search engine optimization expert and founder of SEO Design Solutions SEO Company. Jeffrey has been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings fresh optimization methods and search engine optimization services to businesses seeking organic search engine placement.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/keyword-research-and-grooming-your-site-for-success.htm

For more info please visit us at – search engine optimization

Starting a small business can be overwhelming if you’ve never done it before. You need a wide variety of skills for setting up and marketing your new business, especially if you choose to market online.

Before you get started though, there are several things you might want to consider. By setting a firm foundation for your business before you build it, you’re more likely to see success.

1. Find the focus of your business.

This is a primary mistake I see many small businesses make because many haven’t taken the time to really decide what is most important in their businesses. This includes determining who your customers are, what your goals are in starting a business, and what you’re trying to sell. You may also want to consider the value of your product or service for your target market, as well as how much competition you face. Although competition is good for your business, if you choose the wrong market, or you choose one that ’s too competitive, like travel, you may find yourself having trouble connecting with your market at all.

The lifeblood of any business is your customers, and if you fail to connect with them, or you fail to offer an appropriate solution to their problems, you can find yourself out of business fast. Focus on the tasks in your business that will help you reach your goals and don’t waste time on things that won’t grow your business.

2. Know the value of your business.

Price is an important issue in business, but it ’s not the only factor. Quality, as well as providing an appropriate solution for your customers is also important. Use what your business offers to appropriately market your business, and consider the value of your product when pricing.

If you offer physical products, the cost of making, marketing, and distributing your products is an issue. You want to make sure you correctly mark up the price of your product so that not only is it a fair price, but you also cover the cost of making your products. You should consider this BEFORE making your product.

3. Become the best in your industry.

It ’s not enough to know a lot about your product or service. You want to become the expert in your field. This will bring customers to you. The way to do this is to know as much as possible about your topic, which means constant educating yourself on the latest information in your industry. You also want to provide stellar customer service. This means going the extra mile to make sure your customers are satisfied with the purchases they make. Build value into your products or services and strive for constant improvement. Word travels fast on the internet, and you want others to say positive things about your business.

4. Emphasize customer care.

There are many ways to do this. Providing FAQs not only helps you because it keeps you from answering the same questions over and over, but it also offers your customers additional information on your products.

Answering support tickets promptly, as well as issuing refunds quickly when necessary gives your business a more professional appearance, but it also shows that you are attentive to your customers’ needs. The secret to a well run customer system is to automate your systems as much as possible, especially if you sell digital products. The way to do this is to sell your products through systems that allow you to automate the sales process so the customer is immediately taken to the product. If you sell physical products, then you’ll need to process orders as quickly as possible. Just make sure you have a system in place.

Personalize your communications with customers, as well as your readers. Using autoresponders can help with this, as well as writing conversational messages that are easy to understand.

5. Design an effective marketing strategy for your business.

Although I believe that every free internet marketing technique will work for every business, we’re all different, and there may be certain techniques you are more comfortable doing when first starting out.

Design your marketing plan ahead of time, select the appropriate techniques to try, and then test and track those techniques to get the results you want.

About the Author

Like these tips? Then check out my blog, Internet Marketing for Free for more internet marketing tips. Get a free ebook copy of my book: Internet Marketing for Free: The Guide.

Jinger Jarrett ’s book “Internet Marketing for Free: The GUIDE,” is also available on Amazon.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/5-small-businesses-marketing-tips.htm

For more info please visit us at – search engine optimization

If you’re using a free report or trial offer as a lead generator, you obviously want your conversion rate as high as possible. If your landing page is clunky or confusing or just plain ugly, you might be losing out on many valuable prospects. I’ve recently implemented a few simple changes to a client ’s landing page that resulted in double the conversions. These changes are all easy to do, so I urge you to try them yourself:

1. Remove All Distractions First, I eliminated all navigation from the landing page. And yes, that includes the newsletter subscription form. I wanted visitors to focus on registering for the offer. Once we had their names and email addresses, we could easily invite them to subscribe to the newsletter. (In fact, the service this client uses allowed us to automatically send a newsletter invitation once the prospect signed up for the freebie.)

2. Make The Subscribe Button Bigger I replaced the standard form subscribe button with a large orange graphic button. I also replaced the word “subscribe” with “Send Me The Complimentary Report”. I felt that users might be confused, since they were not asking for a subscription, they were asking for a downloadable pdf document. So I made sure the text on the button was descriptive of the offer.

3. Include A Product Shot I know it might seem silly, but product shots have been proven time and time again to increase conversions, even for digital items. So I decided to show the visitors what the would be getting. Since the original pdf document had a boring, text-only opening page, I created a new cover graphic for the product shot (you need a compelling graphic). Then, I added that same graphic to the report itself, to ensure readers that yes, they did download the proper file.

4. Add A Caption To The Product Shot I added a quick caption below the product shot highlighting one of the main benefits the reader would get from reading the report. Eye tracking studies prove that web visitors do read captions, and I wanted to point out the main benefit to encourage as many conversions as possible.

5. Use A Mouse-Over To Show The Report ’s Content If your report is rather small, I would recommend skipping this step. However, since this client ’s downloadable report was several chapters long, I decided to add a table of contents page. First, I rewrote the chapter titles using more compelling, benefits driven text. Then, I created a graphic that revealed the table of contents when a visitor rolled over the product shot. It was a nice, subtle way to reinforce the report ’s benefits.

6. Add An Industry-Insider Testimonial I added a quote right on top of the submit button from a well respected industry insider touting the benefits that will be learned in the free report. Now here ’s a tip - the industry insider was not talking about this particular report, simply one of the key ideas within the report. It was not an actual testimonial, simply an implied endorsement. But the implication went a long way in encouraging downloads.

7. Simplify The Registration Form This is a point that I always struggle with, no matter what client I am working with. You must know what you want before you design the form. A smaller number of fields on your registration form results in more prospects. However, using more fields on your form results in better qualified prospects. A visitor who is serious about what you are offering and has already moved through the buying cycle is more willing to provide additional information. Before designing your form, it ’s important to outline the metrics for your campaign. Do you want more names or do you want better names? Remember, not all prospects are created equal. We actually developed separate landing pages for this campaign: a simple form for PPC and a more complex form for in-house lists.

Of course, I suggest you run some split tests and try these tweaks out for yourself.

And speaking of split tests, I received a question from a reader who was interested in knowing how long to run a split test and how to finally know when you have a clear cut winner. I’ll tell you the same thing I tell all my clients - don’t overdo it. You can spend months and months and gobs of money testing and redesigning and testing again. For most small business websites, this is overkill. A good rule of thumb for a very small website is that 1,000 unique visitors should produce a clear-cut winner.

Don’t forget to run the numbers. Sometimes the minimal increase you obtain from the “winning” page isn’t worth the time and money it will take to complete the entire site redesign.

And my final note on testing: usually, what works on one page will work on all of your pages. So, if you find that large submit buttons outpull smaller buttons on your download page, it ’s a fair bet that large buttons will work better on your contact us page also.

Time to implement: Each of these changes can be implemented in approximately one hour. You might want to make the changes and do the testing on each tweak individually.

About the Author

Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/these-7-tweaks-doubled-the-conversion-rate.htm

For more info please visit us at – search engine optimization

If you have an online business but are not happy with the present level of income being generated by your website, then this article is for you. Most webmasters do not fully understand what it takes to close a sale, and as a result, they simply put up a website, post their products or information about their services, and expect their website to do the selling for them. However it often takes more than that to convert site visitors into buyers of your products or services.

The solution is to use autoresponders. An autoresponder is a program that sends a series of emails to someone after they have submitted their email address on an online form. Depending upon what you are pitching, you may need to send three, five, or even more emails in order to hook a certain customer and persuade them to make a purchase.

The best way to convince someone to submit their email address on your website is to basically compel them to do so in order to receive certain information. If you operate a website that provides internet marketing advice, then you should have a simple online form on your homepage.

You should start off with a brief introduction as to what you are offering, and then you should make an enticing claim about your products or services, and then immediately after that there should be a short, simple form that requests that the visitor provide his or her name and email address in order to receive information about the claim you are making.

For example, if your website provides search engine marketing advice, then you might want to make a claim that you have put together a full-proof way to climb to the top of the search engines. You would then prompt the visitor to provide their name and email address on the online form so that the information can then be sent to that person via email.

Subsequent to their submission, the autoresponder, which you will need to install on your website with the help of a programmer, immediately sends out an email that provides some information and then offers a product or service related to the information, such as software or any sort of product that relates to the subject of the email.

Your autoresponder needs to be programmed to then send out another email to that same person after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Depending upon what you are selling, you may want to wait 24 hours before the next email is sent, or maybe longer. The autoresponder continues to follow up with the customer on a regular basis without you actually having to send additional emails on your own. If the emails are persuasive, you might eventually be able to close the sale.

In order to install an autresponder on your website, you will need to either hire a programmer who knows how to create the program, or you can pay for an outside service service such as AWeber or GetResponse. The outside service provides the form and collects and stores the email addresses for you, and sends out the emails for you. These sorts of services normally run between $15 to $30 per month.

I recommend that you hire a programmer to install an autoresponder directly on your website rather than using an outside service. Those email addresses are like currency; every time someone submits their email address to you, that email address should not only go into the autoresponder program, but it should also be stored in a separate database. Later on, after a succession of emails has been sent to a certain person through your autoresponder program, you can send offers for other products and services to all of the email addresses you have collected.

I hope the information presented here has convinced you to start using autoresponders. Just remember to make sure that the autoresponder you are using provides the person receiving the emails with a way to unsubscribe from your mailing list, otherwise you will be accused of sending spam.

It is possible to build an entire business on using nothing but autoresponders to do the selling. Just make sure you use a persuasive subject for each email you send so that the recipient will be so enticed by the subject of the email that they will open the message rather than hastily deleting it from their inbox.

About the Author

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/autoresponders-are-critical-for-your-business.htm

For more info please visit us at – search engine optimization

More people are facing the problem of how to increase traffic flow to their websites every day. There have been many methods developed to help solve this problem. While some work very well, others don’t even make a small impression.

Viral marketing is one of the most successful methods that has been developed. Viral marketing capitalizes on the tendency that people will share something they found entertaining or useful.

There are many companies who depend on this behavior to spread the word and increase traffic on their website. Viral marketing can take the form of many different mediums. It can be in the form of a story, a flash game, a video or anything else that might pique a person ’s interest.

This is usually a low cost option to try, and is definitely worth utilizing. The benefits will greatly outweigh the effort and cost that may go into it. Viral marketing can benefit almost any website.

Tell A Friend Script

A tell a friend script is a very easy method of viral marketing. This is just a very simple programming script that you drop into the code of your site. Usually tell a friend scripts are placed on pages where some kind of media is placed that someone may want to share with friends, family or co-workers.

The basic concept is a person puts his name, email and the recipient ’s email into the form, and the media link is sent to the recipient like an email with an attachment. The recipient wouldn’t think of this as spam, since it is from someone he or she knows and trusts.

This sneaky method of direct marketing eliminates the chances of being blocked, because the recipient would have to block their friend ’s email address. This method of advertising is very effective and can reach a wide range of people.

Once the sent email is opened, the sent media will be either viewed, played or read. Along with the mail would be a short company description or the site that sponsors the media that was received. This makes an introduction of either products, the site or the company. Along with all this information is another tell a friend script.

And so the process continues. The tell a friend script works sort of like a chain letter, with each person passing on your information to people they know. Each time it is passed on, more people learn about your company and your products. If they see something they like, they will visit your site. Can you see how this method would result in new potential customers?

Tell a Friend Script Availability

The tell a friend script is simple and doesn’t require a lot of programming. Simply find one you like and paste the script into the intended page. To find one you like, do a search for “tell a friend script” in your favorite search engine.

You will see many results appear. Check some out and see what you like. Once you like one, copy it into your webpage.

Using a tell a friend script viral marketing strategy, you can easily drive more traffic to your site that could result in bigger profits for you. This harmless script will allow you to reap many benefits for little cost and a little creativity.

When using a tell a friend script, you do need patience. If the media you’ve chosen doesn’t get a lot of results, maybe you need to change it to something better. Over time, however, many more people will see your ads and increase your website traffic.

About the Author

For affiliate and internet marketing tips, visit http://AffiliateMarketingPays.com and Go HERE for the best http://InternetHomeBusinessReviews.com

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/viral-marketing/using-a-tell-a-friend-script-to-generate-traffic.htm

For more info please visit us at – search engine optimization

The one virtue that helps sites overcome the competition online is creativity. With so many competing, you must employ every method of marketing you can to stay ahead.

Do you have a killer product? A really cool website? If people don’t know you are there, none of it matters and you won’t make a dime. Worst of all, your business could die a slow, anonymous death.

There are a lot of methods used by e-commerce sites to advertise and drive traffic. Some of them will really give you a boost in the rankings. One of these methods is Viral Marketing.

While we normally think of the term ‘viral’ with ‘virus’ a term that all computer owners dread Viral Marketing isn’t what it may appear. You’re not using a virus to market your business; in reality, this is just a way to utilize the best aspects of word of mouth advertising. It is much more effective than pop up ads and spyware.

Viral Marketing Overview

Viral Marketing is also known as Viral Advertising. This is a technique of marketing that is very effective in building awareness for a company. By using media to reach out to the public, Viral Marketing uses entertaining or informational media to promote the product without directly using it. These media are forwarded from person to person, who then enjoy the entertainment, and have exposure to your website link and product line.

Briefly, the concept is that if people like the media content, they will continue to keep passing it on to friends and family. The company (you) sponsor a specific media like a funny video, a cool game or an amusing story. It is passed around along with your company logo or brand which may contain product descriptions or other material to promote your company or product.

This is a pretty low cost method of advertising that is extremely effective. It avoids being logged as spam mail because each email is sent individually by a friend of the person who receives it. The person who receives it won’t block the email address of someone they know.

Some companies offer discounts, rebates and other incentives to help spread their viral marketing. Companies track the number of recipients that get the viral marketing from a single person to determine the incentive they earn.

Using Viral Marketing to your advantage

The big advantage to viral marketing is you get a lot of publicity and public awareness for your business. Your traffic will increase with potential customers. All it takes is a little creativity and maybe a few incentives to reach out to a large number of people in a very personal manner and introduce them to your existence.

Many sites are catching on to the effectiveness of viral marketing and advertising. Use it to keep your business healthy and growing. Along with search engine optimization and other methods, viral marketing can easily put you in the lead when it comes to rankings.

Some say viral marketing is a bit sneaky. Maybe. But it is nevertheless effective. People come across your media entertainment and pass them along to a friend, who passes it to another friend, and so on. This is a low cost method of advertising that can keep your bottom line healthy and happy. All it takes is a good idea, a gripping video or a fun game. Make a buzz about it create gossip it is an effective way to market movies. Remember “The Blair Witch Project”? Use the same method for your company.

Several large companies have successfully used viral marketing. An example is Microsoft ’s Hotmail. They were the first big company to use this marketing method and it worked wonderfully for them.

Let viral marketing work its magic for you. Act now and see where this unique method of marketing takes you and your sales.

About the Author

For affiliate and internet marketing tips, visit http://AffiliateMarketingPays.com and Go HERE for the best http://InternetHomeBusinessReviews.com

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/viral-marketing/viral-marketing-101–use-it-to-create-a-healthy-business.htm

For more info please visit us at – search engine optimization