Search Engine Optimization vs Search Engine Marketing

Sort Out The Confusion And Start Implementing Them Both!

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is actually one element of SEM, or Search Engine Marketing. Search Engine Optimization is the process of configuring, or optimizing your website with the appropriate keywords you wish to be associated with, in a manner that will make it easily “seen” by search engines. Some of the more common SEO tactics include:

1. Having Keyword rich web pages

2. Having Keywords in the title of your pages

3. Having Keywords in your domain name

4. Naming the images in your site using keywords

5. Naming the Alt tags of images using keywords

Search Engine Marketing is the process and the methods used to promote your site to search engines. The most common tools are:

1. Search Engine Optimization

2. Article Marketing

3. Video Marketing

4. Social Network Marketing

5. PPC, or Pay Per Click Advertising

In most of these methods, the idea is to generate high quality, relevant content that is keyword rich and placed on sites other than yours, This content contains back links that point back to your site. Google and the other search engines use these factors to rank you in the search results people enter. The more back links you have from original quality content, the more important and relevant you are to Google’s results and page rankings.

The important parts above are that the back links to your site must come from relevant, original content. If you have used some of the spamming services or link farms to try to build your back links, Google may penalize you and possibly even black list your site.

Back links generated “Organically,” meaning that they are from high quality, relevant content are also very important to Google, whereas Paid advertising – even Google’s own PPC program – does nothing to help you get higher up in the page results rankings.

So now you know. And whether or not you use SEO or SEM, or both, I suggest you do something with your site ASAP. Your competitors are already doing this. How much of an advantage do you want them to have over you?

Promoting Search Engine Marketing Through Visitors

Want to increase your sales? I’m willing to bet the answer’s “yes.” After all, that’s what SEO (search engine optimization) and getting traffic is all about. But if your visitors aren’t buying once they arrive at your site, your hard work’s going down the tubes! Use these 6 SEO conversion secrets to convert your visitors into sales…

SEO Secret #1: Create a compelling listing Your site’s description in the search results is your first chance to make a good impression with prospective buyers. So make sure it grabs your visitors by the eyeballs! Rewrite your title tag and meta description tag – the parts that show up in the search engine listings. Experiment with new ways of describing who you are and what you do. Repeat until you hit on the combination that persuades the most people to click through to your website. Just make sure your main keyword phrase appears first in both tags.

SEO Secret #2: Create a powerful headline The average visitor to your site will spend just FOUR seconds deciding whether your site has what they’re looking for. A headline that intrigues, excites, or inspires will leave your visitors in no doubt… so they’ll stay long enough to see what else you have to offer. Start by stating the main benefit of what your page is offering. Will your customers learn money-saving tips, for example? Then frame your main benefit with a power statement like “How to…” or “Discover…” or “Uncover the Secret to…” (And don’t forget to include your main keyword in your headline and subheads!)

SEO Secret #3: Create keyword-specific pages Create groups of related keywords for each page or section of your website (e.g., an article, blog post, or salescopy). When people land on a page that focuses on the keyword they searched for, they’re much more likely to stick around – and buy your products! Just include a lead-in or link somewhere to your main sales page. Sometimes just a keyword-rich link is enough, especially when you’ve impressed them with your content.

SEO Secret #4: Use images and multimedia to your advantage The best images help your customers understand what your website is all about. The more directly they relate to your product and content, the more they’ll reassure your visitors they’ve come to the right place. Audio and video can also be great sales tools when used correctly… so long as your listeners are ready for them. Turn off the auto-start feature on video or audio you include on your site. If you can create an optimized page for each video or podcast, your conversions will be even better.

SEO Secret #5: Include an internal search box Adding a search box is an easy way to help your visitors find what they’re looking for. (And according to MarketingSherpa’s Ecommerce Benchmark Guide, 43% of consumers use an internal search box if it’s there.) And a search box offers a prime SEO opportunity, too! Using tools like Google Analytics, you can find out the exact words your market is typing to search for things they expect to find on your site. Use these keywords to optimize other pages of your website, and to test using pay-per-click.

SEO Secret #6: Encourage immediate sales A call to action is what’s going to get your customers to buy today. But is yours full of keywords that will reassure your visitors that their problem will be solved? There you go – six SEO secrets to help you turn your visitors into customers. Try them out and watch your sales soar!

Adobe Photoshop Tips for Web Designers

Learn 5 simple tips you can do in Photoshop to make sure you, the web designer, are using in order to create efficient, user-friendly web sites.

1. 1024 pixels wide or less - If the is one thing that web site visitors hate, it’s having to scroll left and right in order to view a whole web page. Make sure if you are designing a web site in Photoshop, keep it to 1000 pixels wide or less. This allows users using 1024×768 monitors to see the whole page and leaves a little room for window edges, etc. To be totally safe, you may decide to make your pages 800 pixels wide, however as only 8% of site visitors are using an 800×600 resolution (according to a January 2008 W3Schools report), we may finally be safe to make the jump up to 1024.

2. Always “Save for Web” – Even in the age of ultra-fast internet connections, page load time is still an issue. Photoshop helps out a lot with this by exporting images with very compact file sizes using the “Save for Web” mode. A great testament to this is saving the same image using “Save As” and “Save for Web” as 2 JPEGs with the highest quality setting. The image outputted by “Save As” will have a much larger file size. NOTE: Only use “Save for Web” when file size is more important than image quality. The images exported by “Save for Web” will see a slight quality reduction, but when designing for web, it`s something we must accept.

3. When you do “Save for Web,” save the right format – Photoshop`s “Save for Web” feature lets you choose between JPEG, GIF, and PNG files, and when exporting slices for web design, we are not limited to choosing one format for the entire page. This is why it is always a good idea to check the output file size (in the lower left corner of the `Save for Web` window) for various slices. Try different settings for each slice to get the right balance between file size and image quality. PNG and GIF are best for images with only a few colors; JPEG is better for images with a lot of color or tonal variety.

4. IMG ALT - One HTML attribute that many web designers sadly overlook is the IMG ALT attribute. The ALT attribute is not only good for search engine optimization, but is also a necessary feature for web site visitors with disabilities or those who are on a slow connection. You can set ALT attributes of slices by double -clicking then using the Slice Select Tool. The value should be a description of the image in the slice, or, in the case of a slice containing graphic text, what the text says.

5. Be careful with transparent PNGs – If you are exporting PNGs with transparency from Photoshop for web design use, make sure to test the page in all common browsers before taking the site “live.” Internet Explorer 6 and lower do not support PNG transparency out of the box. This is, unfortunately, a major issue, as the majority of web users are still using it – despite its status, in one man`s opinion, as the worst browser ever made. Luckily, there are several scripts one may use in their HTML code to fix the PNG problem in IE6. A quick Google search for “ie png fix” will find the latest fixes.