Smart advertising |e-commerce

Archive for June, 2010

Simple Steps To Internet Advertising
This article will be assuming you already have a company website that you want advertised in Maryland over the Internet. The techniques described will prove useful if you don’t already have a website.

Search Engine Optimization Explained

The first thing we want to do is get your existing website optimized for the search engines. What is meant by optimized?

Keywords search engines operate on keywords keywords are search terms. Keywords are what a search engine user types into a search engine to find what they are looking for.

With that in mind keywords are what you tell the search engine you want to be found under. When a person searching for a product or service types “service they’re looking for” they’re also going to type in the Maryland locality they live in.

Where do you put the keywords on your site? The title. Websites have more than one title. There is the url itself that can be considered a title there is the title of the page and there is what shows up at the top of the browser.

So you get 3 opportunities to use the keyword keyword phrase and Maryland in the webpage.

If you do not add “Frederick Maryland” to your company website or company blog you don’t stand much of a chance to being on the first ten search term results pages if your company serves Frederick Maryland.

If you want to come up in the top ten Maryland search engine results you had better use the word Maryland more than once on your webpage. You had better use the entire keyword combined with the keyword Maryland if you want to come up in the top ten.

Why is that? Let’s say a person needs a to find a printer to get business cards printed up. If they type “printers” in a search engine they are going to see links to where they can buy a printer. So they get smarter and add something to the search term for example:

printers in Maryland

Which returns this result:

Printers Directory of Maryland Printers Directory of Maryland Find or Locate Printers toner ink cartridges printer cartridge cards inkjet hp canon drives digital photo …

This is NOT a printing company it is a printing company directory. Why does that come up and not a local printing company? Because the webmaster doing the search engine optimization is more highly skilled than the local webmasters.

Rather than try to beat the directory webmaster I suggest you use the directories existing page rank to help your little by comparison printing company website to rank higher.

Incoming Links.

How does a search engine determine who gets to be number one and who gets to come in second and so forth?

The precise answer to that question is a tightly kept secret within the search engine head quarters but it’s generally known that link popularity figures prominently in the rankings.

The term link popularity warrants an article unto itself and is beyond the scope of this article. Google the term and see what Wikipedia says about link popularity when finished with this article.

There are two aspects of link popularity: The total number of other websites that carry your link on it. The quality of those websites.

If the Frederick News Post website has your link on it and the Washington Post has your link on it which one do you think is going to carry more weight?

Coming back to the directory being 1 in the search engine.

As a local small business you’re not going to be able to knock that directory out of his number one spot but that also means your competitor isn’t going to be able to do so either.

All you can hope for is to be the only real company listed in a field of useless links to directories. And how can you do that?

If you can’t beat them join them. Search for the directories that are ranking high in the search terms you want to be found under and list your website with them.

In most cases the directory is likely to have a free listing option or offers reciprocal linking.

For now take all the incoming links you can get it’s not going to hurt anything it can only help.

David Bruce Jr is a Maryland Internet Advertising Consultant.
davidbrucefrederick.com
http://www.frederickwebpromotions.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Bruce

David Bruce EzineArticles Expert Author

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;David Bruce is a Maryland Internet Advertising.

Consultant who teaches how to use Business Blogs for local small businesses.
http://ezinearticles.com/?SimpleStepstoInternetAdvertisingid=1782838

Web Site Problems

When building your on line business web site problems must be keep to an up to date minimum. That means that content and graphic design setups from past optimum moves might be web site problems today. This is because the search engines are always changing their algorithms or ways they judge the rating value of your site.

Oh sure you still give great customer assistance and training like in a concrete and glass store business on your online site. The difference on the inter net is that you have to gently grab the attention and heart of your visitor very fast. They will be gone with the click of a mouse if you do not. You want to make business friends fast and gently to make a profit on the net.

Most of us who try to build a web site find that we run into trouble when it comes to building and developing a web presence.

We find that we cannot be successful because of a lack of computer programming and html back ground and education. This was once upon a time a true fact on the inter net. Real life circumstances have dramatically changed the last few years. Now anyone can be successful. All you have to do is bring your God given brains and develop a sincere motivation to succeed.

Training systems have developed so much that you can use powerful start up and maintenance host tools that take very little learning to use and build your on line marketing skills into a profitable business. At this time in inter net history great written personal niche content and excellent videos and targeted links will take you very far into having a successful web business.

Web problems will show up when you see that you have no profits or visitors to your business location. You need an excellent forum to work with. You can solve many small and needed repair problems by having a world class web forum to work with. Your best site host available will have these.

If you join a top quality web site problems solving affiliate program you will be able to find an excellent forum to work with. With a great forum your business will start to move towards becoming an engine that gets results. You will find solutions far quicker this way. It is surprising how many forums have experienced marketing stars who are eager to help you.

You do not have to work sixty to eighty hours a week to be successful in overcoming web site trouble. This is because you pick strong people to work and associate with. Do not accept people who bad mouth your business efforts as friends or business associates or partners. They are fatal poison. Forum associates will build you up. Work quality is far more successful to you than quantity and will give you more energy.

Successful people make plenty of mistakes. This is how you learn. Many karate students I have taught over the years were surprised that I taught them the wrong yes the wrong way to do techniques at first. This way they learned what NOT to do and seldom made these mistakes again. Always learn from your mistakes to make yourself better.

If you have a windows 2000 problem or an internet explorer problem you seek mentors for help right? There is no shame in this. This is how you succeed in over coming your problems. If you are looking for a web host and have no html skills you ask questions.

Many people have the misconception that to solve your problems it takes luck. My marketing and building experience feel the opposite. The reason for this is you need to find the best web host that can help you find the right opportunity with the right tools to help you educate yourself and concentrate on marketing even though you may lack html and computer programming skills.

To get a good fix to build your on line business you want to look for people who have done it before. So ask any host you may have an interest in for references. References from inexperienced people who have built profitable sites is a very strong sign of a host that will make you successful.

One host has had people who spent over 30000 on other hosts come to them for help in getting targeted traffic to make a profit. They only charge 300. Why the big difference? That is easy. The answer is quality versus quantity and hot air. Always compare benefits and costs of any web host before signing up with them.

A big name does not guarantee success. I know that is hard to believe but that is the way it is. You want a hand holding and mentoring host to help you solve all the web site problems that come up and the big hosts just do not have the time to do this. They are not designed to work this way. In conclusion demand they have testimonials from inexperienced people they built up to be successful online entrepreneurs before you join them.

About the writer:  James M. Lowe provides world class web site building toolsweb site host training and marketing.

Is Your Web Site Driving Away Visitors?

Much has been written about optimizing your web site for search engines but less emphasis is placed on usability. Optimizing for usability and for search engines is not a contradiction.

What is usability? Basically stated can the visitor to your site find what they’re looking for quickly and easily? If your site is not usable visitors will go elsewhere. Here is a list of some of the most important usability factors.

1. Does the site load quickly? Inefficient code and large or too many images will slow down page loading. Remember if your page hasn’t loaded in about eight seconds the visitor is likely to go elsewhere.

2. Are the pages attractive appropriate and is the information presented in a consistent simple and concise form? What is attractive and appropriate for a rock band won’t work for an accounting firm. Use colors and style to project the image of your business that you want visitors to see.

3. Can the site be easily navigated? The location and presentation of the navigation buttons should be consistent on each page and the visitor should be able to go from any page to any other page on the site. Ideally a visitor should be able to get to any page with one or two clicks and not have to “drill down” numerous levels unless absolutely necessary. Fewer navigation clicks are better.

4. Text size. All web browsers allow the visitor to resize the text on a web page. This is done to accommodate visitors who have less than “jet pilot” eyesight. Yet remarkably many web designers will “lock” the text to a specific size to keep larger letters from “breaking” the page layout. While it’s a little more work a web page can be built to allow the visitor to set their own text size preferences while preserving the integrity of the page layout.

5. Text color. For whatever reason we’re seeing an increasing number of sites in which there simply is not enough contrast between the text and the background. Maybe the designer thinks it looks cool but it’s hard to read. We also see sites in which the “mouseover” state of a navigation button disappears into the background. Choose your colors carefully and from a readability perspective. It’s hard to beat black text on white.

6. A web page is not print media. Studies have shown that people read web pages differently from printed material. People tend to scan a web page looking for major points. They are not likely to read long paragraphs on the web. The exception to this is informational articles you may have on your site. But you’ve used concise text to get your visitor interested to get them to the article.

So keep your page text short use outlines short paragraphs and sparingly emphasize major points with bold text. Avoid underlining major points because users may confuse the underlines with links.

7. Just as a written paragraph should have one basic topic so should each page in your site. There’s a tendency to cram everything onto the home page. Assume you have a site on which you sell a weightloss medication. After the holidays many of us need that. Anyway use your home page to grab your visitor’s attention and show them how you can solve their problem. Although you love your family and dog and you spent years developing your secret formula put all that wonderful information on some other pages.

8. Avoid splash pages. Splash pages are those introduction pages that serve no other purpose than to well introduce your site. They frustrate visitors and search engines don’t like them.

9. Your navigation buttons must provide a clear indication of what the visitor will find when they click the button. Don’t confuse and irritate your visitor who clicks “Products” and finds himself on a page with stories about your dog.

10. Provide the name of the page on the page so the visitor knows where they are all the time. If more than one level deep provide “breadcrumbs” so the user can navigate their way out.

11. Finally make your contact information easy to find and complete including name address phone Email and address. Doing so exudes professionalism confidence and integrity.

Optimizing for search engines and real people are not incompatible concepts. In fact search engines are becoming more “humanlike” in how they rank sites. Make your site appealing to visitors and good things will happen.

About the writer:  Janet Winter and her husband Phil are owners of Web Design Partners a fullservice Web design firm. If you have questions about Web topics you can contact them at WebDesignPartners.com. They also operate three ecommerce sites WildBirdGoodies.com WelcomeBabyGifts.com and APamperedDog.com.