I recently relaunched http://www.easyonlinediscountcodes.com and did some SEO work on it. Within just a month or two, it has managed to reach 20th place in Google for the search term “online discount codes“, which has approx 8,000 searches per month & about 50,000,000 results to compete with on google.co.uk!!

There may be further developments with this site, so hopefully the content will become even more comprehensive & improve the rankings still further!

It just goes to show that there is definitely something strange going on with Cashback Shopper, as this site still fails to rank in Google, despite being optimised more than some of the sites that are actually in the top 10! It’s very annoying & my resolution for 2010 is to find out why.

Use the keyword phrase in your title tag

The title tag is one of the most important tags on your Web page. And placing your keyword phrase in the title tag, preferably at the beginning, is very important to get that phrase into the search engines. Plus, that puts your keyword phrase as the link in the search engine index.

Get a domain with your keyword phrase

Putting your keyword phrase in your domain name is a great way to optimize for that phrase so use the keyword phrase in your URL.

Even if you can’t get your keywords into your domain name, you can put them into your URL’s. Search engines read the URL’s and assign value to the text they find there.

Use your keyword phrase a lot, but not too much

The ratio of your keywords to the rest of the text on your page is called the keyword density. It’s important to repeat your keywords in your document, but not too much. Keyword density should be between 3 and 7% for your primary keyword phrase and 1-2% for any secondary keywords or keyword phrases.

Mr Google, Matt Cutts, mentioned at PubCon recently that there are over 200 variables in the Google algorithm & although no-one but Google knows what they are exactly, we can have a reasonably good guess at many of them. In fact, WebmasterWorld have set themselves a challenge to list them all!

Here is what has been included so far:

Domain

• Age of domain
• History of domain
• Keywords in domain name
• IP address of domain
• Location of IP address / Server

Architecture

• HTML structure
• Use of Headers tags
• URL path
• Use of external CSS / JavaScript files

Content

• Keyword density of page
• Keywords in Title Tag
• Keywords in Meta Description (Not Meta Keywords)
• Keywords in header tags (H1, H2 etc)
• Keywords in body text
• Freshness of content

Per Inbound Link

• Quality of website inbound linking
• Quality of web page inbound linking
• Age of website
• Age of web page
• Relevancy of page’s content
• Location of link (Footer, Navigation, Body text)
• Anchor text of link
• Title attribute of link
• ALT tag of images linking
• Country specific top level domain
• Authority of top level domain (.edu, .gov)
• Location of server
• Authority links (CNN, BBC, etc)

Cluster of Links

• Uniqueness of class C IP address

Internal Cross Linking

• Number of internal links to page
• Location of link on page
• Anchor text of FIRST text link

Penalties

• Over optimisation
• Purchasing links
• Selling links
• Comment spamming
• Cloaking
• Hidden text
• Duplicate content
• Keyword stuffing
• Manual penalties

Miscellaneous

• JavaScript links
• No follow links

Pending

• Performance / Load of a website
• Speed of Javascript

Not included, but often focussed upon

• XML Sitemap (Aids the crawler but doesn’t help rankings)
• PageRank (General indicator of page’s performance)

It’s easy for everyone to get caught up in obsessing about how to optimise your site & build links for Google, when trying to market through search. That’s certainly a wise thing to do, considering Google totally dominates the search market. But, there are still other search engines that some people are using, so it is wise to make sure your site is performing to the best of its ability in those too!

Obviously the other two engines are Yahoo and Bing and whilst Yahoo is seemingly declining fast, Bing is actually gaining a market share. Furthermore, if the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo goes through, Bing search will be talking over Yahoo anyway. With the muscle of Microsoft behind Bing, you can be sure the search engine won’t be prepared to play second fiddle to Google for long!

However, unlike Google, we don’t hear much about what Bing wants out of a site for decent rankings, but Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center has shared some dos and don’ts of link-building for Bing. Not surprisingly, a lot of his advice for complying with Bing’s policies, does not differ too much from the advice that Google would give you. It is however, still always nice to hear what they think, just to clear up any possible confusion.

Like Google, Bing places great emphasis on quality links to determine its rankings. “Just don’t make the mistake of believing it will result in instant gratification. Successful link building efforts require a long-term commitment, not an overnight or turnkey solution,” says DeJarnette. “You need to continually invest in link building efforts with creativity and time.”

What You Should Do!

DeJarnette shared some tips for getting more quality links. The following are Bing’s tips for effective link building (paraphrased):

What You Should Not Do!

DeJarnette shared a list of things that you should avoid in your link building efforts, if it is a good Bing ranking that you are after. Here is what Bing says will get your site reviewed more closely by staff:

“When probable manipulation is detected, a spam rank factor is applied to a site, depending upon the type and severity of the infraction,” says DeJarnette. “If the spam rating is high, a site can be penalised with a lowered rank. If the violations are egregious, a site can be temporarily or even permanently purged from the index.”

Most of the stuff DeJarnette shared is nothing any experienced search marketer is not already aware of, but it can be quite helpful when a search engine itself lays out what to do and not to do, to help webmasters get better rankings.

Why not use one of our link building or Bing Ranking Boost packages to get guaranteed links for your site.

I still hear a number of people talking about page rank, page rank, page rank, when discussing whether their website is doing well, or trying to assess the results of their search engine optimisation efforts. However, page rank became less relevant when Google removed PageRank values from their webmaster centre!

Here’s the statement Google made when they did it:

We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.

However, if this is Google’s position, then why bother updating their toolbar PageRank values? Doing so is only going to create a stir in the webmaster community & cause confusion as to it’s relevance. Surely it would’ve been much mbetter to remove it from both webmaster tools and the Google toolbar at the same time.

It’s also important to remember that the toolbar Page Rank values can be a couple of month’s old, so they’re out of date even after the update & therefore not really relevant to your current ranking position. The recent PageRank update has left many webmasters confused with most reporting major decreases in their website’s ranking in the search results. But if Google’s statement is to be believed, should you really be concerned about it?

If you have a search engine friendly site, the most important issue for your Google search engine rankings are quality inbound links!

Use one of our link building or Google Ranking Boost packages to get guaranteed links for your site

I’ve been using IBP for a few years now & have found it a very useful tool to assess the search engine optimisation of both my own sites & those of clients.

A new version has just been released by Axandra – IBP 11.5, with a much improved keyword tool.

Finding the best keywords for search engine optimization is crucial if you want to succeed with your website. For this reason, they have completely revamped the keyword tool in the new IBP version.

The new keyword tool in IBP helps you to find good keywords as quickly as possible:

Just enter a keyword and IBP will quickly return the following information:

• keyword suggestions for the entered keyword
• the estimated number of monthly searches for the keywords on Google
• the number of search results for the keywords on Google
• the KEI (keyword effectiveness index) for these keywords

A unique keyword database + support of the official Google keyword tool!

IBP’s keyword tool uses the unique keyword database of KeywordIndex.com. KeywordIndex offers you a unique database that cannot be accessed through any other keyword tool on the Internet. KeywordIndex.com provides you with 38 million unique English keywords, and 20 million unique German keywords.

The quality of the KeywordIndex database enables you to find keywords that are really used on the Internet.

Find keywords in 13 different languages

IBP’s new keyword tool will also help you if you’re looking for keywords in other languages. In addition to the keyword database of KeywordIndex.com, IBP’s keyword tool can also access keyword suggestions of Google, Amazon and YouTube. You can even access the Google AdWords keyword suggestion tool without entering a captcha.

You can use IBP’s keyword tool to find keywords in thirteen languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Polish, Finnish, Swedish and Turkish.

The new IBP version also creates targeted keyword lists for Google AdWords, long tail keywords and much more. It even shows you the Google AdWords adgroup score while collecting your keywords to make it as easy as possible to get a high Google AdWords QualityScore.

Top 10 rankings or your money back

Fact: If you want to get high rankings on Google and other major search engines then you need optimized web page content and high quality inbound links. IBP helps you get both. Download the latest version For FREE now!

Search engine optimisation can be very time consuming for small business owners, not to mention often expensive if you outsource to professional SEO companies. I’ve recently been quoted a price of £500 per month, for a period of 12 months, to promote just one of my sites, which is way above my limits!

Google says it understands that many small business owners and webmaster don’t have the time or funds and are offering some quick DIY tips.

“Google Guru” Matt Cutts has put his top SEO tips into a video. It’s not particularly long but does give some good tips for webmaster or business owners new to SEO.

Here’s the video:

I wrote previously about using article submissions to increase the number of backlinks & traffic to your website.

I’ve been submitting my articles manually, to the top 10 article directories, but this process is very drawn out & complicated by the slightly different layouts & entry requirements of each directory. With thousands of directories out there, although submitting to the top 10, 20 or 30 will achieve results, it will be impossible to do many more manual submissions, which will mean you have to write significantly more articles to get more links.

I’ve been looking at the different article submission websites & software for some time & decided now was the time to take the plunge!

I’ve used Submit2Please’s Article Submission Service in the past, but the charges could be considerable if you have a number of articles to publish:

• $49.95 for 100 PR 3 and above Directories (35+ PR 4 & above Directories & 65 PR 3 Directories)
• $74.95 for 200 PR 2 and above Directories(35+ PR 4 & above Directories, 65 PR 3 Directories & 100+ PR 2 Directories)
• $99.95 for 300 Various PR Directories (35+ PR 4 & above Directories, 65 PR 3 Directories, 100+ PR 2 Directories & 100+ PR 1 & 0 Directories)
• $124.95 for 400 Various PR Directories (35+ PR 4 & above Directories, 65 PR 3 Directories, 100+ PR 2 Directories & 200+ PR 1 & 0 Directories)

Bearing in mind I currently have 7 articles to submit, this is a bit too much to pay!

So, I started to look around for services or software that promise to submit to a large number of sites at a reasonable cost, whilst making sure that the submissions are valid & not classed as spam by either the directories, or Google.

Apart from the dodgy looking article submission software packages for $37, there seems to be a consensus of opinion around the following:

• iSnare
• Article Marketing Automation
• Article Marketer
• Ultimate Article Wizard
• The Phantom Writers
  

I was drawn to Article Marketers & Ultimate Article Wizard out of these, mainly because The Phantom Writers is another pay per article plan, iSnare seems a bit too cheap (my opinion on cheap services has been clouded by my recent experiences with 1and1 & Tiscali!) & other users have suggested that AMA only gets your articles out to about 30 sites.

I was originally put off UAW as it costs $67 per month & it seems that you have to spend time using it to rewrite your articles using what is known as “spinning”. Content (article) spinning involves taking an original article and using it to generate 10′s or 100′s of new unique versions of the text & these “spun” versions of your article are submitted instead. Each of these new articles presents the same ideas and concepts as the original, but expressed in different ways. Whilst all are readable and grammatically correct, each is different from the others in terms of the words on the page and therefore unique in Google’s eyes.

The importance of “spinning” your articles will depend on whether you believe that the backlinks from duplicate articles are being disregarded by Google, when Google’s duplicate content filter is treating the article submissions as duplicate content! If this is the case, then it seems pointless to submit your articles to any more than one site for link purposes, but of course, there is the side issue 0f site traffic that your article could generate. There seems to be some debate as to whether this is the case or not, with some people saying it does & others saying it doesn’t! Here’s the part of Google’s duplicate content policy that seems to say it does!

If you believe that each time you submit your article you need to use a different title, different summary, different resource box, and different article body, then perhaps the extra cost of UAW is worth it. However, I’ve also found a free spinner system called Jetspinner that I’m signing up to, which will hopefully allow me to carry out this process for nothing. Then I can create dozens of versions of my articles & submit them to all the directories instead!

Jetspinner also advertises its own article submission service called Jet Submitter (which also costs $67 per month), but as I’ve already signed up with Article Marketer for 3 months use (cost $79.95), I’m going to have to use it for now. If I’m not happy with it, I may switch to Jet Submitter & use their combined tools, but I’ll use this time to submit as many articles as possible, on all of the topics covered by my affiliate websites & see if it makes any difference to their links & rankings!

This video is a session by Joost De Valk on WordPress Optimisation Strategies from 4uexpo London 2008. Please note, this is the full session and is 52 minutes long.

I plan to watch & then post my comments )

As the recession has now been officially confirmed & the squeeze is on for businesses, many will be looking at areas where they can cut costs and these are often made in marketing strategies.

For many, search engine optimisation (SEO) is often a cost that’s cut, as perhaps it’s perceived that the benefits take longer to realise and are less tangible. However, dumping SEO can mean missing out on a fantastic cheap growth opportunity!

If you’re one of the businesses re-evaluating the future of your marketing strategy, consider the following before making your decision:

1. Ongoing Returns.
The value of SEO continues well after the actual optimisation has finished. Unlike other marketing, (PPC) where the value diminishes quickly after a campaign, SEO continues to generate results, at no additional cost!

2. The traffic is “free”.
While we understand the allure of PPC (fast, guaranteed, qualified traffic), it does cost for each visitor you receive. If you stop paying, your traffic stops. SEO, on the other hand, provides free traffic so your costs are easier to control. Plus, Internet searchers PREFER the natural search listings – 65% of users click on natural results in preference to PPC.

3. Go against the trend
While other businesses might shy away from SEO, or fail to understand it’s importance or benefits, it’s a great chance for businesses to capitalise on marginally lower competition. It could help generate quicker results.

4. Untapped Opportunities
There are still many untapped niches in terms of SEO, especially within localised and specialist industry sectors. Again this offers great growth opportunities for smart business operators, who can quickly climb to the top of their niche market.

5. Leverage the money saving trends online
Consumers ARE being more frugal with their spending and the online space is where they’re doing their comparison shopping. It’s vital for your business to be visible to them, which is why SEO is critical. Google is where the comparison shopping begins and where you need to be found – specifically within the first 30 results!

Given the above benefits and the fact it’s much cheaper than other online marketing initiatives, it seems only logical that SEO should actually be the last option you cut in your marketing plans.

If you’re looking for help with promoting your website, FreshWebz can discouss your SEO options with you.

According to metrics and research firm ComScore, the internet population (users over the age of 15) has now reached 1,007,730,000 visitors. The first time it’s broken the 1 billion visitor mark; and in news that will surprise few, Google sites were the home of most of these internet visitors providing access to an astounding 77% of the market.