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8 Essential Questions For Aspiring Ezine Editors
Online business 'newbies' have no doubt heard that offering a free newsletter is one of the best ways available to build their business and their profits. Some of the benefits include: * Increased credibility * Leverage for profitable Joint...
Are Banner Ads Worth It? The statistics tell the tale.
Most people on the Internet today simply ignore banner ads and move on to other things. Why so much skepticism in the media about Banner Ads? Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but Web Banner Ads are a proven thing. If you don’t believe me, check...
Chris Carpenter's Google Cash - An Ebook Review
Chris Carpenter's Google Cash - An Ebook Review It is rare to find a brand new blueprint for making cash on the internet. The continuous churning of rehashed and ripped off regurgitated pablum has plagued the internet guru market for the last few...
Links! Links! Links!
Website owners: do you know how many links are out there on the Internet, pointing back to your site? If you’re interested in getting free search engine placement for your site, you ought to know. An easy way to find out is to download the Alexa...
What you can expect from Search Engine
Search engines will be a way for you to generate from as little as 20% to as much as 60% of your business online (depending on what other marketing techniques you use). Since there are over 130,000,000 webpages in existence (yes that is 130...
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Harmonize Elements for High Ranking
Ranking high in search engines is like a carefully balanced high-wire act: you can't tip too far to either side or you will not reach your goal. When creating a website, you must use both content and meta tags effectively, but not excessively. There are four main elements that you must harmonize: Meta Tags, Description, Title and Content.
Meta Tags By now, most people know that a meta tag is a word or group of words included in the web site's hidden HTML code and includes a description of the web site, or a set of keywords that reflect the site's content. Search engines use the meta tags to retrieve content about your site. But do you know how to place them? Do you know how to use them effectively? There are several websites that offer tools to help you create meta tags such as and .
These sites will walk you through the process of listing keywords and placing the code inside the tag, just after the tag. This is most important! Proper placement of the Meta tags is crucial to being found by search engine spiders as they travel the web. There are three things that you should never do when creating meta tag keywords: * Never repeat keywords needlessly just to include more keywords. * Never hide keywords by using text of the same color as the background * Never use keywords that have nothing to do with your website
Description The description of your website will appear in your meta tag, name="description" content="Brief description of your website">, as well as in the listing that the search engine returns. Choose descriptive words carefully, ensuring that at least some of them are repeated in the content on your site, your meta tag keywords, and in your title. Now add a little clever marketing pizzazz! "Click Here for ___", is a great phrase to add to your description. Fill-in the blank so that the user is inspired to click for details, promotions, demos, online orders, etc. For instance, "Click here for free samples" is appropriate, but don't overuse "hype" words such as "free" or they could actually lower your ranking.
Title Your website title is truly the crown of your page and should harmonize with your meta tags
and content. It is picked-up by spiders, displayed in search engines and on the title bar of the browser. Make this descriptive but not too long; anything over 100 characters needs to be re-thought. Remember 55-65 characters is about all that the user will see on the title bar, depending on their screen size and resolution. After that, the site title will truncate and they will see the browser name and version. So make those first characters count! If your company name is long, try to shorten it to just one or two key words; enough so that the user knows who it is, but more importantly what it is. What your site is about is imperative. Sure you know your company name and what you do, but will the user? Many people only look at the title first. Then if the title fits their need, they will bother to read the description, or better yet, to make the click and jump to your site. Remember, this is online reading, not print. There is a big difference in how the user approaches the process of reading for information on the web.
Content Content is still king and it reigns supreme over any other clever tactics anyone can come up with. Your site must have verbiage to back up the title, tags and description that you have already created. Repeating keywords or phrases from your description boosts your rankings as well as your credibility. This demonstrates that you are what and who you say you are. Say something substantive about your product or service. You can place little tidbits on the page to reflect these statements if you can't seem to work them into other paragraphs. Don't use an image of text use actual words instead. Using text in an alternative image tag is also a great complement, but it won't replace what you actually say within the website. You want to confirm to your viewers that while you may have used clever marketing techniques to get them there, their click won't be wasted.
About the Author
Bet Cox is the owner of Creative Sols, http://www.creativesols.com, an information development company that specializes in delivering targeted business content for print, presentations, training and the web. You can reach her by email at bcox@creativesols.com.
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