I have already mentioned that Content is considered to be King when it comes to Search Engine Optimization, but how do you write content tailored to for better Search Engine results?

Logical Content

Writing content that is logically associated with your website. If you website is about all about English bulldogs you don’t want to write about having a pet iguana. You want all of you content to be tied together in some way. You need to have a general theme and then think horizontally and vertically under that main theme. Visitors needs need to feel that all of your content makes sense to the site as whole so as to keep them around and hopefully provide them with the information that they need.

Write Content For Visitors

This is commonly overlooked, many people try and write content suitable for search engines instead of the anticipated readers. If you tailor your content to your visitors by giving your writing a voice and a personality then your visitors will stay around longer and hopefully return more often. The most sophisticated search engines reward sites with original well written content.

Original Content

It is of great importance to write original content! If you write on very popular ideas and concepts like I do it is essential to make sure that your content is original. The idea may not be original, but the content needs to be! Search Engines will punish you if they find duplicate content on your site. This however may not be your fault. You may have written an excellent post and then someone came and copied your writing and posted it on their site. Because their site may have more of an ‘authority’ ranking the Search Engines could ping you as the duplicator! Which sucks but it happens. There are a few ways to counter this. Copyscape is one common way to register your content and make sure that no one is copying it online.

Keyword Sprinklage

I know what you’re thinking, yes Sprinklage is a word! It’s the past sense of sprinkling! This is very different from keyword stuffing! Keyword sprinklage is highly valuable when it comes to SEO. If you want your content to rank well for certain terms you need to make sure and place those words into your content as naturally as possible. You don’t want to just randomly throw in the term that your hoping to rank for. You need to tailor your content to those words and then support your key words with the surrounding text.

Those are the 4 master plans to help Create Content for SEO. Write Original, Logical, Keyword rich, content that is easily understood by your visitors!

Technorati Tags:search engine optimization,SEO,keywords,writing content

Generating targeted keywords for your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign is one of the most important steps to creating a successful campaign. Once you have decided the topic of your website the next step is researching keywords that are associated with your topic.

There are various free tools available to you on the web. Some are more beneficial than others I have listed a few of my favorites below.

Google has two keyword tools

Adwords Keyword Tool

The first is their Adwords Keyword tool. This tool is very simple to use and gives you some jumping off points.

Think of a keyword that describes your site. Type that keyword into the box and then click ‘Get Keyword Ideas’. Then you get a lengthy list of new words with variations on the word that you typed in. This tool also provides you with more details. Google has been kind enough to display search volume and advertiser competition so you know how competitive each keyword is. This is a great asset for your SEO campaign.

Search Based Keyword Tool

Google’s Search Based Keyword tool offers a different method for searching for new keywords. There are two options when searching using this tool. You can simply type in your domain name and search and the results displayed will be based on the content of your site. The results listed are keywords that Google suggests you should use for an advertising campaign. According to Google:

 

The main difference between the Search-based Keyword Tool and the Keyword Tool currently in AdWords is that the former generates keyword ideas based on your website, and identifies those currently not being used in your AdWords account. Additionally, the Search-based Keyword Tool provides more detailed data for each keyword, such as category information, suggested bid that may place the ad in the top three spots of a search results page, and ad/search share. Both tools, however, offer the option of browsing all keywords across all categories.

You may also notice that some of the data (like such as the monthly search volume) may vary slightly between the two tools, which is due to different methods of calculation at this time.

These two free tools will get you started with your keyword research for your Search Engine Optimization strategy.

Compile Keywords

After some initial research is done you want to begin compiling all of your new keywords and arranging them by Search Volume and priority. Thanks to Google you already have the search volume information. The priority is up to you!

Search Volume

Google has already compiled the search volume information for your keywords. Now its time to take that data and use it. If you use the Search based keyword tool you should see a magnifying glass on your search results page. Click on it and a new page opens up that displays even more information on that search term.

First you get a graph that shows ‘Interest Over Time’ this displays how often the term was searched for over the last year. If your product has a yearly sales cycle you can clearly see when your search term has peaks and valleys of search volume.

Next you will see a Geographical search display. This shows you where your search is most popular and you can target those geographical regions more precisely with your SEO campaign.

Then finally you will see other search terms related to your keyword. Google displays Top Searches and Rising Searches which both can be very beneficial to your SEO campaign giving you more ideas for expanding your keyword list.

Priority

Priority means you need to decide what terms you want to rank with in the results pages! If your site specializes in selling English Bulldogs puppies you want to make sure to focus on that keyword. You don’t want people coming to your site looking for health information on English bulldogs… Unless you offer that as part of your site.

I believe priority is more important that search volume when compiling your list. However if you want to rank for a term that has a high search volume the work can be very difficult and time consuming. Just be aware of that going forward.

Search Engine Optimization is not a set it and forget it strategy. It’s an ongoing battle against your competitors to constantly try and out rank them to show that your site has more ‘authority’ than another site. With that  in mind, always use appropriate methods when optimizing your website for Search Engine rankings.

What does that mean? Simply put it means organizing and creating your website so that is easily crawled and indexed by search engine bots. These bots are what read the information and report it back to their respective search engine. Google has been kind enough to provide and SEO starter guide. 

Search Engine Optimization is a very large pool to jump into and you may have no idea where to start. 

With the following information listed I am assuming you already have an idea of what your website is about. 

Content is KING

With any SEO campaign the most important aspect to remember is that content is KING! Without great content no one is going to come back to visit your site. If your content doesn’t generate feelings to your readers then how do you ever expect them to return? Think about the websites that you visit the most… They stir up some sort of feelings inside you that drive you to check them out daily! Your biggest asset for Search Engine Optimization is your content. Make sure that your content is original! 

Keywords

I’ve listed Keywords 2nd because I believe that they have a greater impact on your Search Engine rankings than some other aspects of SEO. Keywords are the words that you want your website to displayed for when someone performs a search for that respective word. If your site is about English Bulldogs. Then you want your site to be displayed for the search term english bulldogs! 

So how do you go about entering keywords into your SEO campaigns? 

• Sprinkle your keywords into your content
• Insert Keywords into your meta tags

Keywords <> Content

When writing your content for your web site it’s important to remember to think beforehand and organize what you are going to write about. In the organization part be sure to begin brainstorming some keyword ideas for each web page. When you have your thoughts formulated and begin to write you content make sure and sprinkle those keywords throughout the content! Typically it’s best to focus on 3-5 keywords per page. Anymore than that and your page begins to become too cluttered and will not resonate with your readers. 

Keywords <> Meta Tags

Have no idea what Meta Tags are? Inserting keywords into your meta tags used to be the best way to show up in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) however it soon began as a spamming method and since the major search engines have not put as much emphasis into the Meta Tags as they once had. However it is still an important step that does not need to be overlooked! Depending on how your website’s architecture is created adding meta tags could very simple or somewhat more difficult. Contact your website developer and ask them how simple it is to alter your Meta Tags when you wish to do so!

Building Links

I’ve heard numerous times that if ‘Content is KING’ then ‘Back-links are Queen’. I don’t know if that is a particularly accurate idea nonetheless back-links are important to helping boost your web site ranking! Back-links are created when someone else links to your website’s content. These search engines will crawl each site and see what the site links to among many other things. The more links you have to your site the more ‘authority’ you have in the eyes of the search engine bots! 

Google has created a Page Rank system that helps demonstrate a web site’s ‘authority’ according to Google! 

There are many ways to go about getting links to your website. Some are looked down upon and known as Black Hat techniques and others are very time consuming and expensive. However in the end if you can get a back-link from a site with a high Page Rank then it pays for itself! 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

These 3 ideas are the foundation to beginning a successful Search Engine Optimization campaign. 

For more detailed information be sure to check out these sites:

SEOmoz

SEOchat

Technorati Tags

search engine marketing,
SEO,Keywords, backlinks

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Editing Sidebar Cont.

After we have finished editing the navigation for our email newsletter we need to add content in the sidebar. This content can be whatever you want. It can be ads to your site or another website or just little quick facts about your company.

Lets look at the next part of the code:

Code:

<img src=”hr-small.gif” alt=”Small hr” width=”192″ height=”28″ />

 

                           <h3>Also This Month</h3>

                           <h4>Pellentesque vel dui sed</h4>

                           <p>Aucibus iaculis. Suspendisse dictum magna id purus tincidunt rutrum. Nulla congue. Phasellus mattis sollicitudin ligula. <a href=”#”>Read More »</a></p>

 

Notice the <img src> tag. This is an image that displays a graphic that is used to break up the text in the sidebar. This is a very common practice seen in newsletters. You can create another graphic to put in it’s place just make sure that it fits to the width of 192px!

Look at the <h3> tags. These tags represent a header tag and display valuable information. This is a headline telling the reader what is also in this month’s newsletter. You can change the text here to read whatever you like or remove it completely. 

Next we hav ethe <h4> tag which is a subheading followed by a brief description of the article and a link to read more of the article. This teaser sentence is very effective at getting your subscribers to click through to you site or blog and finish reading the article! Once again notice the <a href=”#’> tag linking to an anchor somewhere within in the content of your newsletter.

There are 3 more sections of these teaser articles listed in the sidebar. You can edit them if you have links to many different articles or you can get rid of them all together. It’s up to you!

Notice we have two more sections in the sidebar. The Forward to a Friend and the Unsubscribe. I would suggest getting rid of these in your actual newsletter. Most email marketing companies provide these to you in the footer of your email. 

The sidebar is looking fairly bare without a lot of graphics and content in it. However its main purpose is to serve as a navigation to the newsletter.

I always like to jazz my newsletter up just a little. So I tend to create graphics and insert them into the side bar to give the newsletter a little more color and life. 

If you have a product you’re promoting, this is the perfect place to put an ad for it! It will be seen by all of your subscribers so hopefully the product that you’re selling is a good reflection of your company!

That’s it for editing the sidebar!

Be on the lookout for Part 5 and we will finish out this series by editing the content of your newsletter !

Have a Great Day!

-Sizm

Technorati Tags:email marketing

Incase you missed it Here is Part 1 and Part 2

How To Format an HTML Email Part 3

In part 2 we discussed editing the background color and the header image using our text editor! 

Editing the Sidebar

Today in Part we’re going to edit the left sidebar of the email!

Lets start by finding out where we in our HTML Code. 

Look for this part of the code right after the header image that we previously edited!

Code:

 

<tr>

               <td>

                  <table width=”580″ height=”130″ border=”0″ cellspacing=”16″ cellpadding=”0″ class=”content”>

                     <tr>

                        <td class=”sidebar” align=”left” valign=”top” width=”192″>

                           <h3>In This Issue</h3>

                           <ul>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Nullam egestas feugiat felis</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Donec porttitor ligula eu dolor</a></li>

                           </ul>

                           <img src=”hr-small.gif” alt=”Small hr” width=”192″ height=”28″ />

 

Oops! Remember we added width to the header image in part 2? So we need to make this opening table that contains the side bar and the body content the same width as the header! Its very simple just replace change this line of code.

Code:

  <table width=”580″ height=”130″ border=”0″ cellspacing=”16″ cellpadding=”0″ class=”content”>

Replace with:

  <table width=”780” height=”130″ border=”0″ cellspacing=”16″ cellpadding=”0″ class=”content”>

Very simple right?

Ok onto editing the content of the sidebar. Let’s examine this line part of the code and break it down so you know which part goes where:

Code:

      <td class=”sidebar” align=”left” valign=”top” width=”192″>

                           <h3>In This Issue</h3>

                           <ul>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Nullam egestas feugiat felis</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Donec porttitor ligula eu dolor</a></li>

                           </ul>

Notice the <td class=sidebar. This references the class in the CSS stylesheet this attached to this page it controls how the page is displayed on your browser. After that line we have align= left which aligns the text left you can change to ‘center’ or ‘right’  then we have valign which stands for vertical align which brings the text to the top of the table as opposed to the middle or bottom. Then we have the width, this is very important! We can change the width of this table but just remember that whenever you change it whether increasing or decreasing you need to change the width of the table that contains the body content as well. However 192 should be more than enough width for this sidebar.

Next we have the <h3> tag, this is the ‘header’ tag it is used to emphasis on whatever is in between the tags. This happens to be the title of this block of content that says ‘In This Issue’. 

Next we have an <ul> or unordered list. A <ul> displays as bullet points where as a <ol> ordered list displays as numbers.

Code:

<li><a href=”#”>Nullam egestas feugiat felis</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Donec porttitor ligula eu dolor</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</a></li>

The <li> tag tells you what is actually listed in the list. Confusing right? The weird looking words are just latin filler words used by designers to show example text. Here is what it might look like for your newsletter!

Code:

<li><a href=”#”>This Month’s List of Stuff Not To Do</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Gary’s Newest Article to Save the World</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”#”>Check Out These Sweet New Sites!</a></li>

You get the picture right?

Now you may be wondering what the <a href> tags are. These are the tags that let you link other files or sites on the web. They stand for a= anchor and href = hypertext reference… Don’t believe me do you? Ok check it out at yourhtmlsource.com

So why is it linked to the ‘#’ this is called an ‘anchored text’ tag. It doesn’t link to another page or website it links to someplace in the body of the content on the same page.

So lets edit these links right now.

Code:

 

<li><a href=”stuff”>This Month’s List of Stuff Not To Do</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”gary”>Gary’s Newest Article to Save the World</a></li>

                              <li><a href=”sweet”>Check Out These Sweet New Sites!</a></li>

 

Now we will have to finish the anchor tag in another lesson but just remember what you put in here for the anchor tags.

Ok well that is enough for today… My head is about to explode explaining all of this HTML stuff to you! 

If you have any questions please feel free to comment on the post!

Welcome to How To Format An HTML Part 2!

Incase you missed it here is Part 1 We are going to start with editing the background and header of the email. After you have downloaded the .zip file from Part 1, or you can get it here.

Open up the Folder ‘Example’ then the File ‘index.html’ . This is a template page we will be editing. There is also a .css style sheet attached but for now we will not use the style sheet. Most email readers have difficulty rendering .css sheets. 

To do most of this editing you will need a text editor. I personally use Adobe’s Dreamweaver it’s very simple to use. So lets open the index.html file and you’ll see these first few lines of code:

<html> <head>    <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=utf-8″>    <title>Template 9 – Left Sidebar</title>    <link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”screen.css”> </head> <body>

Lets edit the background color by adding a couple simple lines of code:

<html> <head>    <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8″>    <title>Template 9 – Left Sidebar</title>    <link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”screen.css”> <style type=”text/css”> <!– body { background-color: #000000; } –> </style></head> <body>

This has given us a black background  the color code # for black is : #000000. You can find any color you want using a color wheel.

Next we are going to edit the header image. Now here you can create a new header image/graphic in your favorite photo editor or graphic creator. I use photoshop because I’m very familiar with it. 

Look for this bit of code:

  <tr>                <td class=”header” align=”left” valign=”bottom”>                   <img src=”header.jpg” alt=”ABC Widgets” width=”580″ height=”130″ />                </td>  

            </tr>

As you can see the header.jpg image is 580 px wide with 130 px height. This can be easily changed to accomodate your new header image. If your header is 600 x 100 thats fine just change it to the appropriate settings in the above code.

However if you make your header image wider you are going to have to increase the width of the rest of the tables in your email so they don’t look all jumbled up!  I adjusted the header image to 780px width so therefore I need to change the width of the table above the header image.

Here is the code:

  <table width=”580″ border=”0″ cellspacing=”0″ cellpadding=”0″>             <tr>                <td class=”permission” align=”center”>                   <p>You’re receiving this newsletter because you <em><strong>SIGNED UP AT <a href=”http://www.yoursite.com” name=”top” name=”#top”>YOURSITE.COM</a> / BOUGHT WIDGETS FROM US</strong></em>.<br />                      Having trouble reading this email? <a href=”#”>View it in your browser</a>. Not interested anymore? <a href=”#”>Unsubscribe Instantly</a>.</p>                </td>             </tr>  

Change to :

  <table width=”780″ border=”0″ cellspacing=”0″ cellpadding=”0″>             <tr>                <td class=”permission” align=”center”>                   <p>You’re receiving this newsletter because you <em><strong>SIGNED UP AT <a href=”http://www.yoursite.com” name=”top” name=”#top”>YOURSITE.COM</a> / BOUGHT WIDGETS FROM US</strong></em>.<br />                      Having trouble reading this email? <a href=”#”>View it in your browser</a>. Not interested anymore? <a href=”#”>Unsubscribe Instantly</a>.</p>                </td>             </tr>  

See not that difficult is it?

Now there is one thing that I want to mention.

I made this mistake multiple times when I first started with HTML emails. Anytime you insert an image you need to place the image on your web server, and you need to insert the whole URL of that image into your HTML email. Example:

<tr>                <td class=”header” align=”left” valign=”bottom”>                   <img src=”header.jpg” alt=”ABC Widgets” width=”580″ height=”130″ />                </td>  

            </tr>

 

The header image above would not show up correctly in any email reader. It would simply show up as an empty box with the dimensions listed above!  You want to avoid this at all costs! So to fix it simply do this:

<tr>                <td class=”header” align=”left” valign=”bottom”>                   <img src=”http://www.yourdomainname.com/header.jpg” alt=”ABC Widgets” width=”580″ height=”130″ />                </td>  

            </tr>

Thats all you have to do to change the background color and header image in this email template.

Be on the lookout for How to Format an HTML Email Part 3 !

Technorati Tags:email marketing,HTML email

Choosing Between HTML and Text

Many Email marketing professionals will tell you to stay away from using HTML for your email marketing campaigns if you are just starting out. This can be good advice if you don’t have any working knowledge of HTML. Simple plain text emails work just as well as HTML.

However I believe HTML emails not only look better but you can also add functionality to these emails. HTML emails can contain logos, pictures, backgrounds and other stylings that you can use to help brand your email campaigns. I think adding color and some style to your email campaigns never hurt! Unless of course those emails are not rendered in any popular email readers!

Many email readers have trouble rendering HTML! Microsoft’s Outlook and Entourage seem to be the best at rendering all emails, that may be good for you if most of your consumers are business professionals. However if your consumers use their personal email such as GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail and others then HTML is not rendered nearly as well in these readers!

If you have no clue what I mean when I say HTML then lets just play it safe and stick with simple text emails, however if you are ready to get into some simple coding then lets jump in!

HTML Emails

When starting a new email campaign you have to ask yourself what is the purpose of this email? Is it a newsletter, press release, sales flyer, etc? If you decided you want to start a newsletter then start listing out the areas you want to include in your newsletter:

• Featured Articles
• Columns with Guest Writers
• News About Your Company
• Sales that you have going on
• etc

Then you can pick a template that seems appropriate for your campaign! There are a couple of sources that I like to use for Free Email Templates!

• Campaign Monitor
• Mail Chimp

I like these templates because they are tested to work with nearly every email reader. Pick your template, I’m going to pick Template 9 with a left sidebar. 

Download this and we will begin editing it in Part 2!

Technorati Tags:email marketing,

Does Pay Per Click advertising help grow your email list? Well it can if done correctly! PPC can bring hundreds or thousands of visitors to your website daily. The sheer amount of traffic coming to your site should be able to increase your mailing list. However you do have to put in some effort to help these visitors join your email list!

Add Your Email Sign Up to Your Landing Page-

Your landing page is what visitors see when they click through on one of your PPC ads. This page can be used to sell a product, offer a free download, it can even be your home page. Whatever the page is, if your focus is on growing your email list you have to make sure that your Email List sign up form is visible! It needs to be plastered on everything page of your site, and especially your landing pages! 

Even if your paid visitor doesn’t initially buy, and they usually don’t then at least try to capture their contact information! This way you have a way to continue your sales process and can eventually turn them into a happy consumer!

If your paying for this traffic coming to your site you at least need to get something out of it! If you have a long sales letter than make sure that the email sign up form is sprinkled throughout. If you are directing traffic to your home page make sure that you form is prominently displayed. There is nothing worse than paying from a visitor to come to your site and not getting anything out of it except a boost to your traffic. Granted you have more visitors to your site which is what you want. What you want more of is tightly targeted consumers coming to your site looking for their needs and desires to fulfilled!

Make sure that your email sign up form is on every landing page for every PPC campaign that you have! Don’t let any possible consumer get away from your site without at least giving them the option to sign up for you Email Marketing list!

Technorati Tags: email marketing,Pay per click

Lets face it! No one knows when the best time to send out an Email Marketing Campaign(EMC). We can look at data and reports till our eyes pop out. But there is no set time to that guarantees a high open rate or click through rate on your EMC! It’s impossible! So what are we to do?  First you have to be able to track when your subscribers are opening your Emails! If you can’t do this then you’ll never be able to figure out the best time to send out your EMC’s.

• Split your email list into two equal groups
• Send the same EMC to each group
• Send the EMC to the First group on Tuesday at 10 am
• Send the EMC to the Second Group on Thursday at 10 am

Keep everything the same except for the date! This is a simple A/B test! Collect the results of these EMC’s did you get more open rates on Tuesday or Thursday? Stick with that day for your next campaign. Data shows us that Tuesday-Thursdays are the best days to send out EMCs. However, that doesn’t apply to every consumer base! You have to do tests and determine when you get the best open rates for your Email list! Ok so you have the results from the first A/B test.  Now lets test which time works better for your list. Are you consumers businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C)? Why does this matter? Businesses and Business people will tend to open their Email during the day during working hours, as opposed to consumers who tend to check personal Email on their personal time! ( At least thats what numerous reports have said!)  So your collected the test results from your first test and it shows that you got a 35% open rate on Thursday at 10am and a 25% open rate on Tuesday at 10 am. So on your next EMC lets set the test up again. I like to ‘un-group’ my mailing and then re-arrange them into 2 new groups. Lets send one EMC at Thursday at 10am and the other at 1pm. Gather the EMC results! Which time had the higher open rate? If Thursday at 10 am had a higher open rate than 1pm. Then it’s the winner of this simple A/B test!  Now testing doesn’t stop here! You must continue refining your EMCs and keep trying to obtain the 100% open rate.  There are numerous variants to test for with your EMCs:

• Time Sent
• Day Sent
• Headline
• From Address
• Design
• etc.

This list could go on and on. Always test your EMCs and always build on what’s working!

echnorati Tags: email marketing, split testing

Does advertising on Social Networks actually work or are customers ‘ad blindness’?  I have not seen any reports released that state click through rates and conversion rates from Facebook just yet. I have my feelings that they are on the way though!

Let’s think our way through this idea of advertising on Facebook… Why do people go to facebook? To get up to second news on what’s going on in all their friends lives right? They need that constant feed of news and gossip so they that never feel left out of the circle! While they’re on facebook are they actually looking to buy or be advertised to?

My immediate answer would have to be No! When I’m  on Facebook I don’t want ads to be sprayed all over the pages I just want to look at what my friends are up, what’s going on in their lives! However. Lately I have found myself clicking on a lot of ads! So I don’t believe consumers have ‘ad blindness’ I think the ads just need to be more tightly targeted.

Of course this is what Facebook has done. They have recently released their newest version of their ad market place with more tightly defined ad targeting. You may ask what ads have I been clicking on, (or maybe not)? I tend to click on ads that are relevant to me and my interests! WOW amazing concept isn’t it? I actually want to hear about stuff that is relevant to what I want. Now granted a lot of theses are for upcoming concerts in my area, but hey they know I like music so that’s why they are displaying these ads. Relevant is more loosely defined on Facebook than it is on Google of course, but they are in the Social Network biz not Search Engines!

As I said in the opening I have not seen any reports yet on Facebook click-through or conversion rates but I would have to suspect that the ads are getting better and better conversions! As long as Facebook keeps improving their ad marketplace with tightly targeted ads then it can be a fairly attractive option to start placing PPC ads! I do believe you can find your market out on Facebook, however you might be better off starting with a Social Network that appeals to a more narrow demographic!

Technorati Tags: facebook, contextual advertising,Social Media Marketing