Peter Nisbet asked:


Search engines are the web’s most used means of driving traffic to websites, and knowledge of search engine marketing is essential to anybody wanting to succeed online. However knowledge of blogging techniques is also instrumental in gaining you a high position in the search engine listings fore your chosen keyword.

Sure, you can promote your site in many ways and there are more ways than a top listing on a search engine to drive traffic to your website, but there is nothing to beat a top ten listing on Google or one of the other major search engines such as Ask, Yahoo or MSN to provide you with consistent sustained traffic day after day after day.

It is not difficult to get listed in a search engine, but it not so easy to be listed in that all-important top 20 position. The top 10 is the ideal, but if you are listed on one of the first two pages of a major search engine, then the traffic will come to you. That is guaranteed. Naturally, the higher you are listed the better, and you will do an awful lot better on the first page than on the second, but if the best you can do is page three then you are going to need a lot more than search engines to help you attract business.

So what are the main essentials of search engine marketing? You have two objectives, the first being to get listed and the second to reach the top 20. It is easy, as I stated earlier, to get listed on a search engine. Many design their site, submit it to Google and then wait for the Google Dance, when Google carries out its World Wide Web search for websites.

Forget that: do not submit your site to Google or any of the other search engines because that can delay your listing. Instead do one of two things. The best is to write a few articles on the topic of your website and submit them to the top article directories. If you can’t write, or if English is not your main language, then use an article ghostwriter. There are plenty people online offering article services at good rates.

Google and the rest frequently visit the higher ranked article directories and will pick up on the link to your website in your ‘author’s resource’, or bio. When they find your site, you get listed, and that can happen in less than 24 hours. That is the main way, but the other is blogs. Add a blog to your site, and it will soon be listed. Google, especially, likes blogs, particularly if it is a Blogger blog, since Blogger is owned by Google. You are virtually guaranteed a listing. If you are not too keen on Blogger, you can switch once your site has been listed. Wordpress is arguably the most versatile blogging software available at the moment, especially if you are running it from your own web space.

Once you are listed, you can improve your position by optimizing each website page for the topic of that page. Don’t forget that search engines list each page separately, and so each page should be optimized separately. However, you should initially focus on your index page, since it is that page which almost invariable gets listed highest. Once your site does have a reasonable high listing, it is possible that another page could get listed higher than your index page, although this is not generally the case.

You can then post a blog on the topic of the page, and add new postings on a regular basis. You should also include a link to your blog from your web pages and a link on your blog sidebar to your website. This will enhance the probability of your home web page being listed, as it also will your blog, since your blog can also be listed on Google and other search engines.

There are some simple things that you can do to make your index page more attractive to the search engines. Bear in mind that your listing is for one search term only, as used by someone seeking information related to the topic of your page. You can receive another listing for another search term (or keyword) on a different index. So, what you must do is to determine the best keyword for which to optimize your index page.

Once you have decided that, include it in the title of your page and place the title in ‘title’ tags. Try to make the title a bit longer than your keyword, so if your keyword is, say, ‘lock design’, make the title ‘The History of Lock Design’, for example. The main heading for the page need not be the same, but should also contain your keyword. A good heading, for example, would be ‘Lock Design from the 18th Century’. Place that in H1 tags to tell the search engine algorithm that the heading contains important text relating to your web page.

In order to accentuate the fact the ‘lock design’ is an important term in your web page, use it in the first 100 characters and again in the last paragraph of the page. You can also use it once for every 300 words if you want, but don’t overuse it. Use plenty of words that relate to the term, in order that the algorithm used to determine the relevance of your page can decide what the actual subject is. Hence, in the example used, it is still not clear if the locks referred to are canal locks or security locks. You should make that clear in the syntax of the page.

For example, your title could be changed to ‘Canal Lock Design from the 18th Century’, and you could make lots of reference to canals, barges, longboats, plan, construction, locks and design. These words will make it clear to the statistical mathematical formula that makes up the LSI (latent semantic indexing) algorithm that determines the meaning of the words used on your page, and determines that the page is about canal locks and not locks and keys.

There are many other ways in which you can optimize your web page to make it more relevant to the search term, and the more relevant the search engine deems it, then the higher the listing in the index for that specific keyword. Blogging can enhance the effect of your SEO, and not only improve your listing position, but also be listed itself, thus providing even more traffic to your website.

Search engine marketing involves a good knowledge of search engines and how they work, but if you get it right then the rewards can be very high in terms of traffic highly targeted to your product. The problem is, unless you know how, or have the right advice from people who know what they are talking about rather than trying to sell you a service, then it takes a long time to learn.

Andy West asked:


When looking to increase the page rank of a website, using a professional provider of SEO link building services can be one of the best options available. The amount of knowledge that goes into search engine optimization is quite vast and very few individuals can keep up with the constant changes. Using a link building service can mean getting all the latest advances in SEO, ensuring a higher page rank and more site traffic.

With the millions of websites on the Internet, achieving a good page rank is the ultimate challenge. Without a good page rank, a website may never see the light of day. All too often, this can lead to less than honest practices by some link services, thereby assuring a website will eventually be shutdown altogether.

Nonetheless, there are many reputable SEO link-building services available. Knowing the idiosyncrasies and all the ins and outs of search engine optimization is what puts a website ahead of its competition. Those with this type of specialized knowledge will have no need to take up with dishonest techniques.

A reputable link building service offers a combination of methods to help raise a website’s page rank. In this day and age, using only reciprocal linking or directory listings simply are not enough. While every website is different, a good SEO provider knows that there is an individual blend of optimization techniques that work for each site.

A number of link building services offer some type of social media options, such as blogging or bookmarking. When using these types of applications, individuals can expect to see a noticeable rise in their site traffic. However, applying these types of methods requires one to know just what a search engine’s algorithms are looking for.

A reputable link building service never offers immediate results. Even when applied in the most efficient manner possible, the outcome of search engine optimization can take a good amount of time and research before they are seen. Link building services that insist they can guarantee a vast number of links in a short amount of time should be approached with great caution.

Because SEO link building can be so confusing, a good service provider does not mind explaining their agenda to clients. In fact, not only will they lay out a game plan that is understandable, a client will also be provided with monthly activity accounts. This allows the client to keep track of progress and see where their link provider is working for them.

SEO link building services know that their reputation is staked on past clients and therefore do not mind providing references of their past work. It is also fairly easy to do research and see who is reputable and who is not. At the same time, good link services do not give away the secrets of previous clients.

A reputable link building service never blatantly ignores the wishes of their client. Instead of focusing on what can’t be done, a good provider will work as closely as possible with their client’s expectations. Both sides must be honest and realistic when it comes to achieving a good page rank.

Cost is another factor when it comes to locating a link building service. Different providers offer different pricing plans. While some offer set prices and quantities, others may charge a fee by the month or quarter.

Just about everybody who is looking to make their website successful is now turning to SEO link building services. With a well balanced plan that involves a number of strategically placed links, blogs and other clever techniques many find the increase in traffic eventually pays for the link services altogether.