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Taking Advantage of Organic Keywords

Monday, April 7th, 2008 | SEO & Marketing with 3 Comments

organic keywordsTaking advantage of organic keywords rock - showing up on page 1 on Google or Yahoo for key terms is a great way to build traffic and is the dream of many webmasters. Lets look at how you can use organic keywords coupled with a little PPC to generate your site some amazing search results.

So, what is ‘organic keywords’? Organic keywords are those that appear naturally on your web site and contribute to the search engine ranking of the page. By taking advantage of those keywords, you can improve your site rankings without putting out additional budget dollars. The problem, however, is that gaining organic ranking alone can take four to six months or longer. To help speed the time it takes to achieve good rankings, many organizations (or individuals) will use organic keywords in addition to some type of PPC  or pay for inclusion service.

To take advantage of organic keywords, you first need to know what those keywords are. One way to find out is to us a web-site metric application, like the one that Google provides. Some of these services track the keywords that push users to your site. When viewing the reports associated with keywords, you can quickly see how your PPC keywords draw traffic, and also what keywords in which you’re not investing still draw traffic.

Another way to discover what could possibly be organic keywords is to consider the words that would be associated with your web site, product, or business name. For example, a writer might include various keywords about the area in which she specializes, but one keyword she won’t necessarily want to purchase is the word “writer,” which should be naturally occurring on the site.

The word won’t necessarily garner high traffic for you, but when that word is combined with more specific keywords, perhaps keywords that you acquire through a PPC service, the organic words can help to push traffic to your site. Going back to our writer example, if the writer specializes in writing about AJAX, the word writer might be an organic keyword, and AJAX might be a keyword that the writer bids for in a PPC service.

Now, when potential visitors use a search engine to search for AJAX writer, the writer’s site has a better chance of being listed higher in the results rankings. Of course, by using more specific terms related to AJAX in addition to “writer,” the chance is pretty good that the organic keyword combined with the PPC keywords will improve search rankings.

So when you come to consider organic keywords, think of words that you might not be willing to spend your budget on, but which could help improve your search rankings, either alone or when combined with keywords that you are willing to invest in.

Popularity: 94% [?]

Advertising Online: Buying Readers

Thursday, March 20th, 2008 | SEO & Marketing with 12 Comments

contextual advertisingI’ve discovered first hand that online advertising can be a great way to jump-start interest in a new website or augment traffic to already established websites. It’s quite easy to get effective ads up and running, and campaigns can be designed to match any budget. Since it’s an avenue few bloggers  & webmasters currently use to expand their readership, it can give you an edge in a world of increasing competition over eyeballs. Companies are also finding success by adding websites or even blogs to their long-running ads.

I buy text advertisements using mostly the Google AdWords system and Yahoo!’s Overture network. These ads appear on the search engines when people type in search terms that match phrases I’ve purchased, and also appear on Google and Yahoo! partner sites that fit the profile for these terms.

The easiest way to get started in the online advertising game is to sign up for a Google AdWords account. All you need is a credit card and the five minutes or so it takes to fill out the online forms. Go to Google to get the process started. You’ll be prompted through the steps required to get your first ad posted. Since you pay only when someone clicks on an ad, you don’t need to worry about paying for ads that don’t generate traffic.

I’ve also purchased and traded for graphical banner ad space on a variety of sites. That type of buy is a little more complex than buying search text ads, but can yield effective results. Like a roadside billboard, many banner placements will cost you money regardless of how many clicks you get, so i advise clients to begin with simple text ads to get a feel of how much traffic they want to achieve per dollar spent. Worry about buying banner space after you get some experience with search ads.

Another kind of advertising system which is highly popular among bloggers is the StumbleUpon advertising network. With StumbleUpon, you can buy site visitors for only $0.5 cents each, and you can be up and running with your campaign within minutes. The good thing about StumbleUpon is you dont have to worry about creating an attractive advert. You simply enter the URL you want to promote, choose a daily budget and watch the visitors flow in. StumbleUpon also has a tracking system which shows how many people have visited your site and what percentage of those visitors liked or disliked your website. For more on StumbleUpon advertising, view Darrens post, Run A StumbleUpon Advertising Campaign.

Which type of advertising do you use to attract new users to your website? Which advertising networks have worked particularly well, or didn’t work at all? I would be interested to hear your views on this kind of marketing, and what experiences you have had using them.

Popularity: 13% [?]

10 Must-See Websites for Starting an Online Business

Monday, January 28th, 2008 | Business with 3 Comments

You’re starting an online business, so it’s important that you understand the internet and all it has to offer. You should know by now that it’s a great learning resource and it can teach you an awful lot about how to run your own web business.

The following are ten of the best and most useful websites available to you may want to consider using for research, online shopping, business advice, or just websites you may want to use on a day-to-day basis. These sites will help you get your business up and running and to grow it from a small start-up to a flourishing online success story. Now get surfing!!!

Realbusiness.co.uk

In need of some inspiration? One of Dan’s websites, realbusiness.co.uk, is the website of Real Business Magazine, and it’s the place to start your journey. It’s full of great features, profiles and interviews with entrepreneurs from all walks of life. There’s an online forum where you can ask questions or express your views, a news blog, podcasts, vodcasts; everything you need to understand who entrepreneurs are, what they strive for and what you can achieve too. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 20% [?]