How Easy Can a "Bot" Crawl Your Site?

Many webmasters believe that great content is the key to Search Engine Optimization but they have forgotten an even more important factor, how easy can the bots crawl their sites? Making a 100% crawlable site should be the top priority for all the webmasters. There is no point having unique and fresh content but cannot be searched from the search engine index.

In order to ensure that bots can crawl a site successfully, one must make sure that all pages can be found by going from page to page via the inter linking mechanism. It is recommended to use text links as a form of linking between all the internal pages. Webmasters can also provide a sitemap that lists all the pages’ links in a page to facilitate this indexing.

One point to take note is that if the site has more than 100 links, it is advisable to split the sitemap into several pages with each page containing no more than 100 links. A page with more than 100 links may be classified as ‘Links Farm’ by the search engine. This is stated officially in the Google Webmaster Guidelines.

Google Sitemap is another great tool to index a new site. Creating a Google sitemap is encouraged because it tells the search engine what are the pages in a site and how often the content is updated. This is particularly useful when some pages are not linked to within the site.

Many sites have faced crawling problems because of the way they linked up the internal pages. Search Engine bots have difficulties indexing JavaScript and Flash navigation menus. If it is not possible to remove this kind of navigation in a site, it is advised to implement a text-link navigation system in the footer of a site. This will help the bots to index the site easily.

According to Google Webmaster Guidelines, it is advised to have a static and short HTML link destination rather than a dynamic URL. Dynamic URL especially those with tagged session identifiers will not be indexed because bots will ignore these pages. It is also encouraged to avoid using the ‘&id=’ parameter when passing variables between pages as Google does not include them into the index. If parameters are needed to pass between pages, a meaningful parameter like ‘&count=’ can be used instead.

When the bots conduct a visit, they will crawl the page like what a general user will see in their browser. Therefore, the bots will never index a password-protected page. If the objective is to get the site indexed by the search engine, it is advisable to remove any password-protected pages to allow access for the bots.

A site should always be search engine friendly so that users can locate the content easily. To conclude, search engines like to index simple and content rich pages. A simple and crawlable site with great content is the essential criteria to Search Engine Optimization.

Fun Site:

Yahoo is a great online resource you might want to use to start your marketing campaign. Put your business on the map. Click Here to Sign up for Yahoo! Sponsored Search and get a $20 bonus.

Until next time
Jasmine


TAN KC is a SEO consultant with several years of related experiences. His advice has helped several Webmasters to increase their SERP. KC is also the founder of www.USESEO.COM , a site that offers free SEO techniques. http://foxiedesign.blogspot.com

10 Effective Seo Design Tips To Impress Both Website Visitors And Search Engines

If you are professional with your search engine optimization efforts and keep your customer in mind before you start considering “what the search engines will think” you will reap a lot more than what you sow. Chances are, if your visitors like your website, there is a very good likelihood that the search engines will like it too.

With this in mind the following 10 tips focus on how to develop your website with your visitors in mind whilst also conducting effective search engine optimization activities.

1. Pick appropriate keyword phrases
This is the single most important thing to do when it comes to optimizing your website for search engines. The words and phrases that your potential customers type into the major search engines are the keywords your site should be using within the specific areas of your webpage (see below; Optimizing your Page Titles and Optimizing your Content). There are a number of useful keyword research tools available on the web such as Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery (both offer trial versions).

However, if you want to find out accurate figures of how many people are searching for your targeted keywords per week/month/year run a Google Adwords and/or Overture campaign and you will get extremely accurate figures of search engine traffic whilst (hopefully) generating income that will pay for your research.

2. Optimize every page on your website
Optimizing each webpage is overlooked by so many websites and can be the difference between competing for a highly competitive keyword phrase such as “Irish Hotels” on your home page and competing for a much less competitive keyword phrase such as “Hotels in County Galway” on another relevant landing page. After that they can check out the rest of your website that is all about “Irish Hotels”.

3. Optimizing your Page Titles
All of the major search engines have 100’s of different algorithms that compute where your webpage should be listed for different keyword searches. Putting your keywords within the title description tag of your pages is one of the most important SEO techniques and will help your website climb through the rankings and allow your visitors to remember exactly what your page is all about when they save it to their “favorites”.

4. Optimizing your Page Content
It is sometimes very difficult to write content for your website. Not only do you need to put the information you want the visitor to see in front of them in an easy-to-read style, you also have to keep in mind the keywords your page is targeting so that you can rank better within search engines.

One of the best pieces of advice I have come across is to write for your visitors and include the keywords as much as makes sense. Read what you have written out loud to yourself and a few others. If it sounds stupid… lather, rinse, and repeat.

5. Create an inbound linking strategy
Submitting your site to website and article directories is a very beneficial way to drive targeted traffic to your website.

Links within these sites not only brings visitors to your website, but search engine “spiders” are easily able find your website and index your pages within their results. If your site doesn’t have a link pointing to it on the World Wide Web the search engines will never find it and you will never see any traffic from Google or the other big ones.

6. Descriptively labeling your links and images (aka the anchor text)
This technique is both common sense and good practice. Telling your visitors what the link that they are going to click on allows them to know exactly what they are going to be directed to. Saying “click here” is not enough to help them understand what they're going to find once they click through. Be as descriptive as possible with every text and graphical link on your site. When writing your anchor text and alt attributes you can almost always describe the page you're pointing to by using its main keyword phrase which is a major factor that search engines take into account when it comes to ranking your web pages.

7. Make sure your site is spider-friendly
Your website may look fantastic. You and your web designer may be talented graphic designers who can make Flash and JavaScript dazzle your visitors with a show that would put Michael Flatley and his River Dance to shame. However, if your website contains Flash and Javascript it’s important to know that search engine spiders have difficulty reading this code (or appreciate the effort you put into the design). The way around this is to provide navigation alternatives such as static links and a site map to allow the spiders crawl deep within your website and index the web pages within their results. Overuse of Flash, JavaScript, and images can also lead to your web pages being very slow to download. If these file types are used sparingly your visitors and search engines will appreciate your efforts a lot more.

8. Create Fresh Content
When you are optimizing your website properly you will see a trend. If you are doing something that benefits your websites visitors then the search engines will reward you for it.

Blogs and forums are effective and easy ways of adding new information to your site on a regular basis. However, if your only purpose of setting up a blog or a forum is for better search engine rankings then there really is no point in doing it. Only add a forum if it contributes something beneficial to your website and if you have the traffic to make it interactive enough for visitors to return to it. And, only add a blog if you have something of interest to say on a regular basis. Once you have your blog and/or forum up-and-running you should optimize them with the same professionalism you do with any other page on your website.

9. Do not think that you can trick Search Engines
As noted before, “If you are doing something that benefits your websites visitors then the search engines will reward you for it”.

If you try to trick the search engines by hiding keyword phrases, joining link farms, or any other sneaky practice your sites will be removed from the search engines and it will take you a long time to get back in (and you will also have to spend more time cleaning up your website before they will accept you).

10. Offer something unique
If your website offers something that is unique and interesting to your target market and it is properly optimized (by applying all of the techniques listed above) you will not only rank well within the major search engines, you will also get the added benefit of people linking to your website in forums, blogs, and through other websites which will send your site more visitors and create more inbound links which will help it rank higher.

Remember it’s human visitors that you are trying to impress, not search engine robots.

Fun Site:

Yahoo! Search Marketing (Click Here)

Until next time!
Jasmine

Barry Fenning is the owner of http://www.betteririshwebsites.com The articles available on this website are suitable for people that want to learn how to conduct effective SEO campaigns. Please include this bio for article reproduction permission. http://foxpromotions.blogspot.com http://foxiedesign.blogspot.com

Beginner's Guide To Site Promotion

Promoting a web site is no real easy task for anyone, including the Internet promotion experts. It's even harder for those of you with little or no experience with web site promotion. In an effort to help those of you that need help in this area I have wrote this article or guide (Call it whatever you like!). Although this is by no means a complete guide, this will show you the basics of promoting a web site.

Search engine optimization - When a Internet user searches for something that is somehow related to your web site, you want your web site to come up as near to the top of the search results in the search engines as possible, right? Of course, you do. But how do you get to the top of the search results? Well, it's easier said then done, but can be done if you follow the few simple tips below.

You need to take a close look at your site and decide which search terms people will use to find it. Example, your site is about dogs, you'll want to come up under keywords such as dog information, dog facts, etc. You need to pick your most important keyword and try to get a keyword density between 5 and 15%, this depends on which search engine you are targeting though. Important keywords should also appear in bold and be one of the first words on the web page

The most important thing is to get is backlinks. But not just from any web site, but from ones that are related to yours and those that look clean, or otherwise the ones that don't use Spam techniques. You also want the backlinks you get to look like they are natural to the search engines, so one-way links are best and increase your backlinks slowly and not get them all at once. Your anchor text should vary, using the same one too many times won't look natural to the search engines.

The web site's structure will decide how the spiders read your web site. You want there to be more text content then HTML content. Stay away from using Java or Flash heavily on your web site, the less you use on the site the better. Spiders (Also known as robots) cannot read Java or Flash. You should avoid programs such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver, they often add coding errors.

After that you may want to submit your web site to the search engines, this isn't important if you get links from web sites that already appear in the search engines and by submitting will not help your ranking or speed up the time it takes for your web site appear in the search results. Some suggest that submitting to the search engines instead of letting them find you can hurt your ranking, but this is highly unlikely.

Links - As you now know getting links can help you in the search engines, but they can also bring in tons of traffic and not just any traffic, but some of the best traffic you can get. You should submit to directories such as Yahoo! and the ODP (Open Directory Project). Even better, try topic related directories, they send VERY targeted traffic compared to most other sources. Contact web sites that are related to yours and ask if they'll exchange links.

Award Programs - Although this can be a waste of time if you bother with all those web sites (Most won't send any traffic) that offer awards, but if you pick the right ones and have a web site that offers something useful, this could send you great deal of traffic for many years to come. Most of these award programs will link back to your web site if you are one of the award winners.

Paid Advertisement - Of course, you can pay another web site to display your advertisement. The cost depends on a number of things, such as amount of traffic they get and where your advertisement is placed at. PPC (Pay per click) search engines such as Google AdWords and Yahoo! Overture is an another posable option. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad and often the traffic they send is highly targeted. This may be the best option out there right now.

Offline Marketing - Most people don't even look into this and many think it's a waste of time, but they are very wrong. Use word of mouth by telling your friends and colleagues about your site, you can hand out cards and flyers to generate good word of mouth. Take your flyers and put them up at local stores, collages and Laundromats, but make sure they are OK with you adding your flyer first though.

Look into placing an ad in the local newspaper, this is often cheap, so you can't lose much money here, but then again you may not be able to lose much. Although Radio has died out because of CDs, Internet and paid radio, it's still one of the best places to advertise offline because it's cheap and can reach a number of people. You may have to look into AM radio depending on your web site's subject.

Don't even try it! - Of course, no promotion guide would be complete without pointing out things you shouldn't use to promote your web site. Do not send email Spam, unsolicited e-mail is not acceptable, it's likely the most hated part of the web. Spamming will make more people hate your web site than like it, thereby making you lose could have been customers.

Don't try to Spam the search engine, most web sites get caught right away, while some may not get caught right away, they will get caught sometime down the road. Remember that the search engines are always changing the ways they ranks web sites and are getting smarter (Although at times that seems hard to believe), so you will get caught if you try to Spam them.

Don't open your web site to the pubic before you have tested (Links, coding errors, etc.) it completely and know it's working correctly. Make sure every section of the web site is completed. Most Internet users will never return to a web site where they find a section of a web site that isn't completed or see an under construction sign.

Until next time!
Jasmine



About The Author
Matt Colyer is the owner of the www.superiorwebmaster.com. He also is a php, CGI and ASP developer. http://foxpromotions.blogspot.com/

5 Secrets to Effective Pay Per Click Advertising

With so many companies swarming the World Wide Web with their products, how can your products and services stand out?

Your ready answer would most likely be effective marketing. But how? How can you catch the eye of a surfer skimming carelessly through web pages? How can you keep the attention of a typical website reader who spends no more than 30 seconds to read any given article online? How can you garner sales online?

One marketing technique is to be listed in search engines – but again, with thousands of companies offering the same products and services as you, how can your scream for attention be heard?

One technique is pay per click advertising, or PPC. You write out and place an advertisement in a search engine, list yourself under keywords of your choosing, and bid on the placement of your ads. This narrows your field to the people who are actively searching for your products and services.

If someone finds the ad and clicks it, that person goes to your website, and you pay the bid price. As a rule, the higher you bid, the higher your ad goes in the list of search results for a certain keyword, and the more people will go to your site.

PPC can be used to widen your reach, but it can be very expensive, especially if people click your ad only out of curiosity, or if you bid on more keywords than your budget can handle. However, PPC can get you customers and increase your profits. If done well, it can earn you money.

Here are five tips to get the most out of Pay Per Click.

Get Ten Specific Keywords.

If you are a company specializing in exercise equipment, don't select "exercise equipment" or "gym" as your keywords. Chances are, there will be hundreds of thousands of other bidders waiting to jump on those same keywords. Be specific. Try "treadmill" or "stationary bike." Select a maximum of ten words, just to test the waters and see how your potential customers respond.

If the first ten keywords succeed in getting you a larger market, then research additional keywords which are not as specific. However, if your first try yields less than satisfactory results, then try another set of keywords if you can still afford it.

Write Your Ads but Write the Truth.

Most ad writers will broadcast their wares as being the be-all and cure all of all ills and pains. If they do this, web users will click on their ads and storm the site. This is well and good if the product or service will live up to the ad's promise – but what if it doesn't? A customer clicks, you pay, but the customer doesn't buy. You lose.

Write a succinct but accurate ad that doesn't use vague language. Avoid using words such as "free," "low cost," "extremely effective," and "cheap." Tailor your ads to fit the keyword, and if you can, include your prices on the ads. This way, you will get a buyer who is ready and willing to purchase your product or service.

Budget Your Bid.

It's tempting to go all out and set your prices, especially if you think your product will sell. But what if it won't? Set a monthly budget of about $100 for your bids, and bid just right – bid too high and you will run out of money, bid too low and your ads won't show up.

Even if you believe in your product, keep within bid budget, and do not get into bidding wars, especially with another advertiser who has a much larger budget than you.

Don't waste your time thinking about your bids. Instead, invest your time in designing what your ad is linked to, which brings us to:

Make Your Site a Professional One.

The standard rules of web design apply. Check your web content for spelling and grammatical errors. Update your web content regularly. Fix any broken links and images. Design your website so that it will be easy to navigate and load, so do not use Flash animation, as this will slow down your buyers' browsers. Link your ads to the exact place on your site where your product or service appears.

Know When to Stop.

PPC ad campaigns can lead more buyers to you, but take care to check profit against spending. If you have already spent double your advertising budget, but have had little or no sales, consider dropping your campaign. You can also measure your progress in clicks. A total of 300 clicks is average for any ad. If your ad has reached 300 clicks and you have made no sales yet, then terminate your PPC project.

Equally as important as knowing when to stop is knowing that all is not yet lost and you can still go on. Running a web-based business means investing time, money, and effort, so keep your PPC up and running as long as you are raking money in. PPC, after all, may first mean pay-per-click, but, if you're successful, can soon mean Profiting Perfectly in Cash.

Yahoo is a great place to start your Pay Per Click advertising campaign. Yahoo! Sponsored Search lists your business on top sites like Yahoo!, AltaVista and CNN. Click Here to Sign up and get a $25 credit.

Until Next Time!

Jasmine

http://foxpromotions.blogspot.com/, http://foxiedesigns.blogspot.com
Daegan Smith is the leader of the fastest growing team of successful home business enterpernuers on the net. Find out how we're creating financial freedom all across the globe and how to get in on the action FREE at http://www.comlev.net/.

Arrgh. . .Those Stupid Internet Marketing Cliches Are True!

If you have read any internet marketing resource ever created, you have no doubt seen simple, one sentence, pot-shot solutions to all of your problems: You will only be successful if you think you are successful. You will make money if you work hard. Think outside of the box. Content is king!. . .If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. How can this possibly help me, you think. These people are just crack-pots! They do not actually have any real help to offer me--just general advice, which really has no practical implications for me and for my business.

This is exactly what I thought and this is now what I see newer marketers and affiliates saying. I was always skeptical of general advice. I thought success stories that ended with an exhortation to "work hard" and "make plans" and "think outside of the box" were just plain worthless.What I now know (what I have learned as I slowly became more successful) is that this "common wisdom"--which I initially regarded as foolish and too unspecific--was actually the best advice available on the internet and it didn't even cost me money.

These simple cliches make up the best possible over-arching structure of complex business and marketing plans. They arbitrate the decisions of the most successful internet marketers. And when marketers decide to be short-sighted and deny these cliches for quicker returns, they are smacked-down and brought to reality or ruin by the manifestation of these cliches.

As someone who has received many brutal, unrelenting smack-downs from the Internet, I can verify this.

So what is it about these cliches that give them such universal, lasting truth?--They ignore hype. They ignore nuance. They don't marry a fad. And most importantly, they are results-oriented.

They don't give you the specifics. They tell you what to focus on--broadly--and allow you to find the best way to nuance, build, and strengthen that simple concept, which ultimately should to be your choice, anyway. Just think: if we all tried to occupy the same niches, optimize for the same keywords, and advertise on the same sites, then none of us would be making money (and this is actually why quite a few of us do not make money).

If you create an ebusiness according to these simple cliches, you will not become wildly successful overnight. You will not find that silver bullet to turn everything around. You will simply create a solid, practical business with linear increases that achieves realistic outcomes and will one day--with enough work--become that profit-pulling empire you have dreamed of since day one.

That's great. But how do I apply these ethereal parcels of "wisdom" to my real ebusiness?--Through structural adjustments and long-term planning, the two most important parts of building a successful, long-term internet business.

Unfortunately, too many new internet marketers--in their eagerness to see immediate results--refuse to plan anything. Instead, they rush forward, purchasing products and services and piles of nonsense that, no matter how good they are, cannot be useful unless implemented within a solid business plan. They get frustrated. They give up. They fail. Other internet marketers, weary of trying new plans, constantly pound away on unprofitable ideas that also will never achieve long-term results. They purchase thousands of clicks, impressions, and guaranteed visitors. They never remake the amount they spent on advertising.They get frustrated. They give up. They fail.They never sit down and create plans. They never follow up with those plans and revise them as they go. They make no structural adjustments to their businesses to reflect their successes and failures. They react to everything immediately or just stagnate altogether.

But you are different. You will no longer do this. You know that content really is king. And that if you want to succeed, you really must work hard. You know that when you make a new product, you had better be thinking outside of the box or else you will be smacked-down by those stupid cliches that make you cringe whenever someone repeats them.

So set goals and try to achieve them. Make your business results-oriented. Stop hanging your entire internet business career on a single marketing fad.

Don't count your e-chickens before they hatch!. . .And most importantly of all, always remember: if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.

Click Here to Stop Procrastination (Now) with Hypnosis

Click Here to Learn How to Attain Financial Abundance with Hypnosis

Until Next Time!
Arianna



************************************
Isaiah Hull is a widely-published business tips writer, a professional internet marketer, an affiliate program PTL, and the publisher of two ebusiness and marketing training courses. Hull earns an income by training ordinary people to use simple, replicable, step-by-step plans to earn any amount of income on the internet. One such plan can be found at the following URL on his website: http://www.workathomerightnow.net Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Isaiah_Hull HTTP://FOXPROMOTIONS.BLOGSPOT.COM

Tips to Keep A Continuous Website Traffic Flow

After creating a website the toughest thing to do can be generating website traffic. Once you have discovered the various internet marketing strategies to bring traffic to your site you must be able to maintain the traffic.

So what website marketing strategies can you use to keep the readers attention and maintain new traffic at the same time you may ask?

Providing new content is important to keep returning visitors interested. By creating fresh content you can not only keep returning visitors interested, but also give new visitors information that can change their perspective of things. Content that is worth a persons time will help drive up your website traffic.

An internet marketing strategy that has become extremely important of late has been keyword optimization. By doing some research and finding keywords that pertain to the theme of your website, you can then put the keywords into your content. As people search for these keywords, your website will come up. The higher you can get on search engines with various keywords, the more likely you will be to create a heavy website traffic flow.

Along the same lines, you want to make sure you have the main keywords you are focusing on in the first paragraph of each article. By reviewing the content on your website and making sure you have done this, this internet marketing strategy will help increase your ranking in the search engines.

Along the same lines of new content, it is important you change the look of your website from time to time. Do not re-organize every day because this will drop your page rank and confuse your visitors. However, by changing a few small things and adding new content you will keep returning visitors interested.

Link exchanges are a great internet marketing tool that can continuously drive new traffic to your website. Know that you can never have too many link exchanges. The more links you have the more customers you will have in turn. After you have built up a good page rank and a solid link database, try and focus on getting quality links with high page ranks to better your website that much more.

Finally, continuously listing your URL in search engines will guarantee website traffic. You should be listed with as many, if not all, of the larger and more popular search engines first. After accomplishing this, then go after all of the smaller search engines.

By following these tips you should have no problem with keeping a heavy website traffic flow to your website whether it be returning visitors or brand new faces.

I would like to leave you with one more piece of advice: Never stop learning about Internet marketing, read everything you can get your hands on. Why not visit your local library or bookstore?

Click here for some great books on internet marketing!

Until Next Time!
Jasmine :)


Shon Christopher’s making money website will provide you with the tools needed to boost your internet income in no time. With various secrets and tips, you will find informational articles and more to help you become a successful internet marketer. Go here to find more: http://www.moneymultipliermethods.com, www.foxsatellite.com , http://foxiedesigns.blogspot.com

Website Promotion

Website promotion is truly the reason behind internet marketing. The purpose of all your internet marketing activities is to drive traffic to your website so that your website can make the sale, or otherwise generate revenue for your business.

There are literally hundreds of tips and techniques for promoting your website and driving traffic your way. However, there are some that stand apart from others as proven effective website promotion techniques. Some of the most effective website promotion methods I’ve experienced include:

Search engine marketing Click Here for info on Yahoo search
Pay-per-click advertising
Link exchanges
Buying traffic in bulk
Email marketing

Some other fairly effective methods include participation in newsgroups and online forums, operation of referral programs, banner advertising, and issuance of press releases to gain exposure from the media.

Placement of classified advertisements in newspapers, ezines, magazines, trade publications and in online directories is also somewhat effective.

One of the most wildly effective methods of internet marketing that is absolutely free and really drives tons of traffic to a website is giving away free, expert content to be republished. The trick to driving traffic from your give-away content is to provide a link back to your website as part of the content and giving others permission to publish your content for free as long as they leave it unchanged. This is an incredibly effective way to get the link to your website published and presented to an audience that is interested in the products or services you provide. There is a great demand on the internet for high quality, expert content so it should be no problem to get your articles picked up and published. There are a number of free content sites, some general and some industry specific, where you can display your articles for website owners to view and download.

Whatever methods of website promotion you choose for your internet marketing program be sure to monitor the results. The server logs provided by your email host should tell you where your traffic is coming from. This is an exceptional tool for managing your internet marketing program as well as for planning your future website promotion activities.

If a website promotion method seems that is not working for you after you have given it adequate time, then change your strategy and methods a bit to get the best results from your internet marketing program.

The key to success is staying on top of your website statistics and spending your marketing money wisely on the methods that work best for your business.


Until Next Time
Jasmine


About the Author:Jason Tarasi publishes the reciprocal links newsletter "Elite Links" Reciprocal Links Newsletter
Read more articles by: Jason Tarasi Article Source: www.iSnare.com www.foxiedesigns.blogspot.com

Internet Marketing Reality Check

There are thousands of web sites, books, CD-ROMs, cassette tapes and various other forms of communication devoted to the topic of Internet marketing. The majority of these sites profess to offer "secret strategies" and "killer tactics" which promise to increase your chances of having success on the Internet. Of course you must fork over your hard earned cash for these wonderful pearls of wisdom. Many of which turn out to be nothing more than pyramid schemes and other scams

With all of these so called experts lining up to take your money and fill your head with dreams of making easy millions you may find it difficult to filter out the facts from the fiction. I will take the unenviable role of fact giving, bubble burster and tell you flat out, "There are no secrets to successful Internet marketing!"

Let me repeat myself, I said, "There are no secrets to successful Internet marketing"

Successful marketing, whether its online or off, requires careful planning and a lot of hard work. And no amount of marketing will ever meet with success if the product being marketed is a bad one. This is especially true of web sites, which carry the remarkable distinction of the almighty back button. I know this from first hand experience with companies that have spent ridiculous amounts of money to market web sites which were basically unusable.

Now that your dreams of sailing around the ocean sipping margaritas, while an Internet cash machine deposits six figure sums into your bank are thoroughly dashed, lets explore some of the common issues associated with true Internet marketing success as well as a few of the many misconceptions.

The same principles that govern off-line marketing practices apply to online marketing. Research, Planning, and Analysis.

Research:
Determine what makes your product or service stand out from the crowd. What do you offer that the competition doesnt? How do your prices compare to others in the market? What features of your product are one of a kind? All of this information will help in designing your web site to reflect a unique selling proposal. A unique selling proposal answers the customer's question, "Whats in it for me?" Gather all the information possible that answers this question and use it in planning your web site.

Planning:
Develop a marketing strategy for your web site.

Are you selling merchandise online? Are you advertising a service? Who are your customers? You must determine exactly what it is that you want your website to accomplish. Example: If your web site is focused on making it easier for potential customers to learn about your services, focus your attention on offering as much information about your services as possible. Price comparisons of your competition, directions to your business location, contact information, testimonials, etc., are a good place to start. Plan your web site around a central goal.

Analysis:
So your web site is up and running, you have developed a marketing strategy and people are interested in your product. Now its time to figure our what is working and what isn't. This aspect of marketing your web site can be one of the most difficult to understand. This goes well beyond simply counting the number of visitors to your site. It requires analyzing the habits of those who travel to your site. Determining what features of your site compel visitors to purchase your products, what features turn visitors away. It is important to analyze every single feature of your web site, from the sales copy to the navigation. You must understand how every feature of your web site supports or detracts from your marketing success.

Hopefully by now you realize that Internet marketing requires more than just an out-of-the-box solution. There is no magical formula to marketing online, and those who say otherwise should be scrutinized. The incredible variety of businesses online require individual marketing strategies and plans. A real estate web site should not be marketed the same way as one selling comic books. Any salesman would have a difficult time selling denture glue to a teen-ager, it just doesnt fit. And neither does one size fit all marketing plans. Target markets have to be considered. Planning, strategy and analysis must be carried out in order to achieve any kind of lasting success.

Make your web site usable and you will gain success! Now, if you would like to send me a check for $30 for this "killer strategy" please feel free to do so. Otherwise, take this bit of information and file it in the "critically important" category. By usable, I'm talking about such web site considerations as working links, fast loading pages, limited use of images, animations and other "fluff" that will make most users hit the back button faster than you can blink a virtual eye.

Fact: Most Internet users will hit their back buttons if a web page doesn't load in 20 seconds or less. Increasing the speed at which your web site loads greatly increases the likelihood that it will ever be seen.

Submit your site to 100,000 search engines for just $29.95 !!! Beware of offers like this, the truth is there are only a handful of search engines that most people use to find things online. Concentrating your marketing efforts on these few search engines is much more effective than having your site listed in a million places that nobody will ever see. Bear in mind that most of these multiple search engine submittal sites are profit driven, and the only one making a profit is them.

Fact: Google and Yahoo are currently the major players in the search engine game comprising 54% and 41% of all Internet searches respectively.

Number 1 Ranking in Google! Guaranteed!
I have seen many web sites offering search engine ranking services, making claims like the one above, The truth of the matter is that it is impossible to guarantee a number one ranking with Google's free search engine submission. As I have stated previously there are a number of strategies and steps that can be taken to optimize your web site for search engine placement and achieve the highest rankings possible. Guaranteed results are a myth, it is possible to have the highest ranking in Google for search terms that aren't commonly used, but then, what's the point?

Fact: It is true that you can purchase advertising space using the Google service called AdWords. Advertisements appear in the right hand column of Google search pages.

Successful marketing of your business online requires time, effort and patience. There are no easy solutions. But, a fair amount of devotion and common sense can yield truly impressive results.

Yahoo is a great online resource you might want to use to start your marketing campaign. Put your business on the map. Click Here to Sign up for Yahoo! Sponsored Search and get a $20 bonus.

Until Next Time!!!
Jasmine :)



Jeff Palmer is an internet marketing consultant and web designer with over 10 years of experience and is the process of writing what promises to be that definitive guide to online marketing. If you would like information about this upcoming book, including a sneek peek at finished chapters contact the author directly at greatempty@yahoo.com.

INCREASE SALES BY ACCEPTING CREDIT CARDS

How to increase your sales by accepting credit cards

You should be congratulated for knowing that accepting credit and debit cards is a true benefit for your business. Did you know that the..

CONVENIENCE of multple payment methods increases sales:

You probably already know that accepting alternative forms of payment like credit and debit cards and making it more convenient for people to pay you will INCREASE YOUR SALES AND PROFITS. Some studies say by 30 -100% or more (Visa International). But is this reason alone enough to invest? Maybe not.

MERE PRESENCE OF CREDIT CARD LOGOS increases CASH SALES

But I bet you didn't know that a fascinating study was explained in the book "Influence" by Robert Cialdini. This scientific experiment documented that the mere presence of Master Card/ Visa logos will INCREASE CASH SALES by 29% in contolled studies - even though credit cards were not used!

ADVERTISING GAINS CREDIBILITY

Did you also know that advertising that you accept credit and debit cards INCREASES YOUR CREDIBILITY? It's true. The public knows that Merchant Account status is not always easy to get and will look at you as more of a solid company - here to stay. "Hmmm... doesn't accept credit cards? Is there some kind of credit problem I should know about this company" This makes sense doesn't it?

AVERAGE SALE AMOUNT GOES UP

Were you aware that the AVERAGE SALE AMOUNT GOES UP? Studies prove (and I am sure it's true of most of us) that when we are ready to make a purchase and we are paying with a credit card we are more inclined to purchase the "upgrade" product or service. Human nature seems to cause most of us to be inclined to purchase the "better model or service upgrade" when we can finance the purchase with a credit card don't you agree?

IMPULSE PURCHASES GO UP

Did you also know that your willingness to accept credit cards also causes IMPULSE PURCHASES TO GO UP? Customers are more likely to purchase that "Upsell" extra product or that "Back End Product".

CLICK HERE for more information


Until Next Time!
Jasmine :)



source: www.foxsatellite.com