Source Code: Places You May Not Have Thought To Put KeywordsWritten by Courtney Heard
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for more keywords. You may get lots of traffic with keywords, but without user-friendliness, that traffic will leave displeased. 4. Comment Tags - I thought everyone knew this one, but I haven't seen many sites out there making use of it. Comment tags are generally used to remind us of what following or preceding code does, like little HTML post-it notes that can only be seen in source code. They look like this <!--Horseback Riding Accommodations Rates Page--> where everything between "<!--" and "-->" is comment or note we're leaving ourselves. Used wisely and in moderation, this can be yet another opportunity to add keywords to your site's source code. All of these areas are good areas to add keyword density to your site, but they all must be used with caution. Everything in these areas should be in context, meaning they should relate directly to what a web visitor will be seeing. They should also be used in moderation. Strings of keywords in a table summary tag will surely start raising some flags at Googleplex. It won't be long now before Google and other major search engines start keeping a closer, more critical eye on these areas. The most important rule of thumb to go by when designing and optimizing any web site, is to keep it user friendly. A pleased and impressed web visitor is best web site optimization and will surely lead to your site's success.
Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, an Internet Marketing and SEO company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney's articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/.
| | A Search Engine Optimizer's New Year's Resolutions Written by Shawn Campbell
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I will not use "spammy" techniques. I will use pay-per-click (PPC), even if it is for a very small amount. - I have found that using even a minuscule PPC campaign will bring in more traffic. It also propagates links to your site throughout Internet, and thus makes your site more prominent. If you are worried about losing money, then use free conversion tracking tool available at both Overture and Google AdWords. USE IT. Only then will you know how effective your PPC campaign really is.
I will track unique hits to site. - By keeping track of whether site's traffic goes up or down, I get a big picture of health of web site. If traffic goes up, then rankings probably went up. If traffic goes down, then rankings probably went down. Of course there are also seasonal variations (and marketing pushes), but you should be familiar enough with market to know when to expect such cyclical fluctuations.
I will get a good copywriter to write content. - "Content is King", so get a professional to write it. You may think you are good, but are you really? Would you bet your Internet presence on it? Use someone who knows how to write specifically for Internet. Use someone who knows how to balance writing for people, writing for sales, and writing for search engines.
I will not send out "spammy" emails asking for reciprocal links. - Reciprocal links don't bring in clients, and they tend to only slightly boost your PageRank. An SEO's time is better served getting site listed in directories and on sites where people would be looking for it (such as associations, suppliers, clients, and more…). Personalized emails to these sites requesting a link to yours are fine. Templates or mass emails requesting reciprocal links are definitely not.
I will work hard getting valuable links to my site. - "Linking is Queen", thus getting links is essential. Find directories that relate to your market and take your time to submit to them (in best category). Contact your suppliers and/or resellers and see if they will link to you. Figure out where your potential clients hang out on Internet, and get those sites to link to you. Do your homework to choose where you want your links to appear, then roll up your sleeves, get out elbow grease and get those links to show up!
With a little dedication and a lot of work, I will get my clients into top search engine results. If you want to do well with your web site, stickto these resolutions and before you know it traffic (and sales) will roll in smoothly, just like New Year.
Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.
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