Website SEO: Directory Submission – Do You Still Need This?

Directory submission is still one of the effective ways to get links. However, effective as they may be, they still have their problems. Nowadays, you can find small web directories that mainly exist to swindle you. You can see them as paid web directory listings.

So, are they still good? Actually, they were and they still are for different reasons. Before, they are a good venue for web advertising. People used to go to directory listings to find certain things. That is until search engines took over. Still, they have their value in terms of links. And you know what they say in order to get to the top; you need links, links and links.

In order to get to the top of the search pages, you need to have a number of links. However, not all links have the same weight. If you're operating a site on flower arranging services, it wouldn't have a lot of weight if you find that link in gaming sites.

Most directories have human editors where they scrutinize your site before posting it in their directory. This means that in order for your site to get posted in theirs, you'll need to adhere to some rules and guidelines first. This way, your site will be categorized accordingly. Search engines make use of this information to check what kind of site you have as well.

On the downside of submitting to web directories, there are a lot of web directory lists online and it's getting hard to find one that will actually provide value to you. A lot of the web directories that people go to are even obsolete, due to relying on search engines for quicker searches. Most Website SEOs would consider pagerank as a factor for choosing web directories.

Submitting to a directory listing is still considered an effective online SEO strategy. Look for a directory list that is updated regularly and has human editors. Find a directory listing that is related to your website because not all directory listings cater to all topics. Again, pagerank is one thing to consider. By doing this, you'll be able to save money and improve your profits.

Strategies To Keep Your Readers Hooked

Operating a site means you'll have to have readers. Getting readers from links and search engine results may already give you a leg up. However, it's maintaining them that should be one of your priorities.

In order to keep your readers or "accidental" visitors, you have to keep your readers or visitors interested by following a few simple tips.

Always keep things fresh. Most readers come back in order to see updates. If you'll go on a month without at least an update, your readers may decide to look for something more interesting. Nowadays, almost every site updates their news or blog at least once day. Heck, there's even some that does more than that. You can entertain your readers with news or current events.

Share what you know. If you know something, share it. People appreciate that. However, make sure that what you know is somehow important to people reading it. Always make a point to make content that's worth reading.

Have a sense of Humor. A lot of people want to be entertained. That's why we turn on the radio when we drive. We listen to music; we listen to DJ's crack jokes. People like to be entertained even when they're in front of the computer.

Be unique. Though I may already sound like a broken record by saying this, I'll still emphasize that you need to be unique. People often read to know other's points of view. As an "expert" in your field, they would want to know what your opinion is on certain matters. Remember, it doesn't always have to conform to your readers' opinions. That way, if one of your readers disagrees, you can engage in a healthy exchange of comments.

Write something that people want to read. Create an article for readers, not spiders. There's really no point stuffing articles with keywords that may be able to pull in readers on the first round but fail to deliver in the next rounds. People are smart enough to know if an article really has value to them.

Share technical expertise. If you're an expert in something, share it. If you're not, find someone who knows what he's talking and have him make some content for you. Well, another way would be to write about someone sharing an opinion, what with he being an expert and all, about something he's expert in.

Encourage them. Ask and you shall receive. Did you ever ask your readers to come back? A simple "come back for the next issue of..." You may be surprised that there are readers that actually respond to these requests. Perhaps you should try "Bookmark us by pressing Ctrl + D."

Improve your design. How your site looks also affect your readers desire to stay or go. Make sure that it doesn't look like something that came out of the ADs Section of a newspaper. Also, you might consider putting in some plug-ins that may enable your readers to easily share your site. Put in some twitter, Facebook or even blogger plug-ins. People won't hesitate to share things that they find entertaining, informational and helpful.

Keep your readers coming back. Even if you don't make a sale, or even if they don't click your ads, sooner or later, someone's bound to come back and say, "Hey, that's just what I need!"

Making the Most of your Facebook Fan pages

If you have been working online to promote your local business, chances are, you already have a Facebook page. Facebook has hundreds of millions of active users and it's the perfect venue for searching potential customers.

Once you've created your own Facebook fan page, what then? To help you with that, here's a list of tips to guide you with your Facebook pages.

Give them Free stuff!

I'm not talking about expensive stuff. You have to entice your potential customers to be a fan of your page. What better way than to offer something for free? Again, it doesn't have to be expensive. You have to convince them to liking your page in the first place.

Keep updating

A common mistake that people make is that when they set up their page, they expect it to take off by itself. It's like planting a seed and entrusting everything to nature to make it grow. Just like watering a seed, you need to keep updating your content. Give your readers a reason to come back to your page.

Establish a relationship

Remember that your fans are people as well. Create an environment where interaction will be easier between you and your potential customers or clients. Get to know them. Remember that you're in a social network so it's only logical for you to socialize.

Sneak Previews

Similar to giving away free stuff, give your visitors an incentive for being loyal readers. If you're planning on launching something big, give them a sneak peak to what you have going. This will encourage more loyalty from your fans.

Another way of making sure that you're getting the most out of your internet is by checking out your customers. Who knows, you might find some strategy that will be very useful to you.

Website SEO: Black Hat Or White Hat?

Everybody wants to be placed at the top of every search engine. So how does one do it? What we'll talk about today is to help you develop a sensible strategy in promoting your website.

Have you ever asked yourself, how does a search engine choose which one goes at the top?

The truth of the matter is, every search engine has their own "top secret" formula or algorithms to calculate whether you should go at the top. There goal is to provide the most relevant, up-to-date pages for every search query. In order to do this, they are continuously battling against SEO experts who would seek to turn the favor into their clients.

Black Hat and White Hat Website SEO

There are basically two strategies in getting on top, namely Black Hat and White Hat. White hat is the kind of Website SEO that search engines approve of. It is by providing quality, relevant, and timely information.

Black hat on the other hand refers to strategies that try to circumvent that and is a why synonymous to cheating. Black hat strategies can work. However, these "techniques" can only work for a while since smart people at Google can figure out what you're doing and get rid of that loophole. This can even get you banned.

No one can really be certain what affects the rankings. However, there are those that have been proven time and time again. It also makes sense considering the goal that search engines have.

Quality Themed Content. This is more than just stuffing your articles with your keywords. Search engines are getting better at determining the themes where your links are at. Search engines determine the themes through "latent semantic indexing". It's another way of saying that some artificial intelligence is capable of checking whether the sites that have your links have the same theme, or basically similar to your site.

All Links Are Not Made Equal

Links with the same theme as your site can have more weight than those links that come from sites that are unrelated to your site. In other words, if you're trying to promote a baking site, your links from a baking blog can have more weight than links from a gardening site.

Can Anyone Guarantee A Number One Placement?

The answer is NO! No SEO consultant can guarantee Top placement. All they can guarantee are actions that can try to get you there. Not unless he owns the search engine of course.

Website SEO: Tips on On-Page Optimization

Hold your horses. Before loading up your guns and firing all your efforts toward linkbuilding, be sure to cover your bases first. Before you can send out links to your site, make sure that your site is already SEO friendly.

Here are a simple ways of optimizing your site for search engines. No, we’re not trying to manipulate the results of search engines by doing something in our site. Instead, we’re doing some things to make it “easier” for search engines.

Generate good content. Nothing beats good content. The more you have… the better. The more unique it is… the better.

Fix your Meta Tags. Though a lot would say it doesn’t do good, it’s better to do it and find out it has weight than not do it and find out that it does.

Create unique keyword-targeted title tags on your pages. If you must put your company somewhere in the site, put it at the end.

Keep up to date. Keep your site fresh by generating content on a regular basis. Fresh content adds to your sites relevancy on specific queries.

Be sure to link internally. Create your own mini-net within your own subdomains.

Always link back to your domain. Similar to linking internally, be sure that every page you have is able to link back to your site.

Use keyword-rich URLs. Instead of using numbers and dates in naming your pages, be sure to include keywords that you’re trying to rank for.

Create a sitemap. Aside from making it easier for your visitors to navigate through your site, it will make it easier for robots/crawlers as well.

Give each page one target keyword phrase. Don’t optimize a page for many keywords.

Keyword Captions. If you have photos in your site, make sure to use your keywords when providing captions.

Add widgets to your site. These tools can make it easy for visitors to share.

Widen your services to videos, podcasts, news and even social media. SEO is now more than just blue links in your site.

Optimizing your site is a must before doing off page optimization. Once you’re done with these things, you can now have fun with linkbuilding.