SEO Ratios for Content, Links and Competing Pages

Finding the proper SEO ratios for content, links and competing pages is critical for determining where each keyword fits in the hierarchy. This correlation between site architecture, URL, title, internal links and deep links determines which keywords are liberated from lackluster status to blockbuster SEO rankings.

Finding the Proper Balance of SEO

Within each page is a balance, this balance is between the aggregate layers represented by that page and what it can pass along through its own relevance score and whether or not that page is contributing to or detracting from the websites relevancy for the most competitive keywords the site is set on acquiring.

Under this assumption, a page is either passive or active within a site. This status depends on how the page is linked, the context of the keywords used on the page and / or linked to the page and how that page links to other pages within the site.

One thing to keep in mind is that depending on the number of pages within a website, an accommodating SEO strategy should coincide that takes the content deliverables into consideration and whether or not the main push will come from on page (internal links, content, navigation) or off page (links from social bookmarking sites, themed authoritative sites, blogs, directories, article marketing or widgets).

Using this as a vector to see the entire site as a vibrant ecosystem, each page represents a unique node of relevance (like a piece of a puzzle) that corresponds to a keyword or group of related keywords known as a cluster.

Regardless of which on page or off page metrics you employ, you will need to align the site architecture with those metrics based on how competitive the keyword is and where it fits into that parent theme or keyword cluster.

We use competing pages as a baseline in tandem with (1) how many pages are indexed (2) how old the site is (3) if relevant deep links are present (4) if the competitive keywords (over 1 million competing pages in phrase match) are in the primary navigation, secondary navigation, footer links, alt attributes, meta data or internal links.

However, for the sake of being concise, we are going to address the competing pages metric as a primary metric for elaboration.

Although each circumstance is different and each website unique; you can at least use this as a temporal benchmark for performance as an internal guideline for structure.

   1. Keywords with 50K or less can get ranked from ambient co-occurrence.
   2. Keywords with 50-100K need approximately 15 deep links per page in addition to 10 secondary (informational) pages (min.) to provide internal links.
   3. Keywords with 100-300K need approximately 25-30 deep links and 15-20 pages. (min.) e.g. more trust, topical relevance from overlapping keywords.
   4. Keywords with 300-500K need approximately 50 deep links and 25 pages of content (min.) to provide significant ranking factor.
   5. Keywords with 500-750K need approximately 75 deep links and 50 pages of content (min.) to provide significant ranking factor.
   6. Keywords with 750K-1MM competing pages using “phrase match” need approximately 100 deep links and 75-100 pages (min.) of unified content.
   7. Keywords with 2MM competing pages or more “using phrase match” need approximately 250 deep links and 200+ pages (internally linked) with a preferred landing page to gain expression.

Obviously there are variables for every aspect of SEO and how individual campaigns play out, however these assumptions are based on our tests using a new site starting fresh with no SERP history for a given keyword within the range of phrase match mentioned.

To find the threshold for competitive keywords, simply place the keyword or phrase “in quotes” and commence with a Google search. The number of results returned from the search indicates how many pages Google is currently using as a benchmark for indexed pages that include that keyword or key phrase variation.

For keywords under 200K competing pages, simple internal linking is often sufficient from consolidating the number of pages internally through virtual theming (linking to the preferred page from every keyword occurrence on other pages).
However for more competitive keywords the number of deep links from related or authoritative sites with the preferred anchor text is required to offset the barrier to entry. This is why we suggest for keywords between 300-500,000 competing pages that you employ a variety of deep links to aid the process and create a buoyant search engine rankings.

There is a fleeting metric to this equation which is domain and page authority, both will impact the SERPs and individual keywords based on their relative values. For example, as a site becomes more authoritative, the need for off page ranking factor diminishes. Also, the correlation between indexation and PageRank all flow through the connectivity of the site architecture.

This means that by tactfully integrating the more competitive keywords into common areas (block segments, server side includes, secondary navigation, footer links, alt attributes, etc.) you provide additional weight to the relevance thresholds required to produce a shift in ranking algorithms (to imply that THE TARGET PAGE is important).

You may find that based on the authority of the site that keyword objectives are acquired faster or slower, depending on the aggregate number of pages provide on a topic within the website. Yet, this document can at least establish a baseline for you to use to structure a worthy assault to offset competitors in their varying degrees of occupancy in the SERPs (search engine result pages) for the desired keywords.

The grandfather effect and brand rank are real (meaning that geriocracy is real as well as preferential treatment of domains), so, there are some instances where this metric is completely obsolete, in which case you would have to look at the number of EDU links, powerhouse sites linking to a page and / or domain as well as the relevancy of the theme, total number of pages dedicated to the keyword with the site (as a valid competitive metric).

Tags : Seo 1 comment

Mobile Marketing In The Near Future

Not to my surprise, I find mobile marketing has both a digital and traditional definition. The digital definition is as one would expect, marketing your business message through mobile devices. In the traditional definition there are moving billboards that are associated with mobile marketing. We are going to be talking about mobile devices.

The mobile industry certainly has grown quickly the past three years. The iPhone coming to market was only the beginning. It didnt take long for mobile applications to make these devices more useful to the consumer. With the flood of mobile applications consumers were able to find many different uses for their mobile device. Games and Entertainment were only the beginning. More useful applications like tools, utilities and resources also found their way to the mobile device.

As of December 2009 there were 285,610,580 mobile devices in the United States against a population of 308,505,000. Basically 91% of the population has a mobile device. Feel free to look at the Wikipedia article at for more statistics worldwide.

With 91% of the U.S. population having a mobile device, and these devices having considerable capabilities, it is undoubtedly the next significant source of information for consumers and businesses alike. Using it as a phone is only the beginning. Email, Games, Entertainment, Texting, Instant Messaging, Browsing, Photos, Camera, Calculator, Calendar, Maps, Voice Recognition, News, Banking, Weather, Finance, Social Communities, and Radio are only a small fraction of what mobile devices are used for. Their capabilities will continue to grow as this mini-computer will have more use in our daily lives.

As an Internet and digital marketing agency were going to focus on how a business can use mobile marketing. Well focus on four specific areas and describe a starting point and a planned progression for the next few years. Each area has many details and this information is designed to be in summary. Future articles will specifically discuss each section separately.

Messaging Services

This is known as texting and includes SMS Texting (Short Message Service) as well as MMS (Multimedia Message Service). For a business to tap into this marketing tool you have to begin by getting permission from prospects and customers to send them SMS or MMS messages. Begin by seeking out a service that provides SMS and/or MMS services. You will be assigned a text number that customers can send a subscription notice to. You can add this feature into your website, email marketing or display in your business to promote how prospects and clients can get alerts from you by SMS or MMS. Because it will take time to build up subscribers you will want to start this sooner rather than later.

Mobile Websites

We have had discussions with clients in which they felt as long as their website was showing on a mobile browser then they had a mobile website. Not the case. A website that was developed specifically for a standard computer or laptop monitor does not mean you have a mobile version of your website. On a mobile version of a business website a user will not need to zoom in or out or pan left or right when viewing your website. The website will be a lite version of your primary website with specific call to actions that are useful to the users visiting your mobile website. A good example is Delta Airlines. Go to their website on a standard computer. Then go to their website using a mobile devices browser. You will see two very different websites. As a business you will want to budget and get a mobile version of your website as one of your very next steps.

Mobile Applications

At some point every business will have a mobile application and its even possible that mobile applications will diminish the need for domain names. Mobile applications can be useful as a tool for your customers or you may decide to have an application for branding purposes that is a simple game. There are certainly many possibilities for mobile applications and you will need to consult with a marketing firm to decide how to best utilize mobile applications. Mobile application development budgets vary dependent upon creative, interface functionality, database use and Internet streaming.

Mobile Advertising

Text advertising like Google adwords and banner advertising is available direct to mobile devices. The difference is how theyre delivered. For example banner ads will appear in free mobile applications and when the application is used at the bottom. You can push your mobile banner ads through mobile advertising networks like AdMob (acquired by Google) and Quattro (acquired by Apple). Development of your mobile ads requires a different approach since there is limited physical dimensions of your message.

By utilizing all four mobile marketing components for your marketing plan over the next couple of years you will be able to tap into a new marketing tool that happens to be well suited for local business marketing. Waiting for two years to pass and then deciding to plan and adopt this technology is probably the wrong answer. You need to incorporate this process now and build it into your business marketing process otherwise you will be left behind.

Certainly your time resources are limited and Geo-Marketing Services, of which Mobile marketing is a part of, are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find this to be of great benefit to your time resources and let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use these geo-marketing tools properly to generate revenue with positive customer experiences.

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How to Check Backlinks

If you’re trying to get free traffic from Google you will need to have your site rank on the first page of Google for whatever keyword you are targeting. When choosing keywords to target you’ll want to take into consideration the level of search volume the word or phrase has, as well as the level of competition.

Once you’ve identified those elements and have your content online you’ll need to start building backlinks. How do you know how many links you have?

While there is plenty of variables in Google’s algorithm backlinks are well known to help your site rank in the search engine results. It is not only the number of links you have, but the quality of the links, as well a the anchor text you use in those links.

All the elements can get pretty overwhelming, but let’s just look at how many links you have and how to check.

You will have to use Yahoo to do this, as Google will never give you an actual measure of how many links you have pointing to your site. It will give you a sampling of the sites linking to your site. So we head over to Yahoo, who doesn’t seem to have this problem.

We’re not going straight to Yahoo search, but to the site explorer. Here’s the link:

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

Once you’re there you will put your url in the search box ~ or the site url you want to check backlinks for.

Site explorer will first show you the number of pages on the site ~ that’s not what you want. You want the links pointing to the site, so you’ll click the “inlinks” button. This will give you all the links pointing to your site, including links from your own site. While these count it is more accurate and helpful to look at the links you have pointing to your site from other sites.

Getting this piece of information is simple enough by clicking “except from this domain”. This will remove all the internal site links.

This will give you a list and number of backlinks you have pointing to your site.

Once you know this information you can use this process to check the backlinks of other sites trying to rank for the keywords you are targeting. You may find they have more or less backlinks than your site has and they may or may not be currently outranking you in Google.

This can be caused by several reasons. You may have all your links coming from a few sites. This happens when you comment on all the same blogs all the time, or if you submit all your posts to the same bookmarking sites. Variety is better.

The other reason sites with less backlinks than you may be outranking you may be because of the quality of the links they have. They may be using the specific keywords as the anchor text in more of their links. Their links may be coming from more relevant sites, or sites with better page rank. No matter the reason though, you know where you’re at, and you can keep building more quality links from quality sites and know that you will eventually overtake them in the ranking.

Tags : Seo 3 comments

Location & Mobile Search Marketing Will Evolve

Are you are still applying the same exact SEO tactics that you did a few years back? Have you evolved into what is happening now in the search marketing space? If you havent you could be shooting yourself in the foot with your online marketing approach. This is a very fast moving industry that requires a great deal of constant education. I wont compare it to the education level needed to consistently be a good doctor but there is a fair amount of information that needs to be digested at almost all times to stay on top of the internet trends. Savvy start-ups are springing to action with great force almost every single day. Some of these new technology start-ups are changing the way that people communicate online and if you dont keep up with it you could fall behind your competition.

The pace of change is much like a runaway locomotive train and consumers along with businesses are trying to simply grab a hold and stay on. The reason why old SEO tactics do not work like they used to is because consumers are starting to act and purchase on trust rather than emotion. They need to see your business in many different areas before they decided to contact you for any reason.

Lets take a look at some location and mobile search marketing areas that I think we will see strong growth online in the very near future:

1. Location Based Search Marketing: Foursqaure and Gowalla have taken what Twitter does and twisted and tweaked it to remove the spammy business side that tends to infiltrate the website now. Your phone understands where you are and shows you a list of places surrounding your immediate location. You can then check in to those places to let others know you are there and how you feel about it. In this process you receive badges for frequency of check-ins. Recently Facebook and Twitter both have already started implementing their own location based features. This is obviously a direction where things are starting to head. Location based marketing is really just getting started but it will eventually be an integral part of any online marketing campaign.

2. Mobile Phone Applications: Search engines are not just on desktop computers and laptops anymore. They now follow people around in their pockets on their mobile phones. The mobile app industry is absolutely exploding and more and more users are shifting away from looking up a business on their mobile website and moving to just downloading a mobile app version for that specific business. It makes things much easier for the user and more efficient as well. As devices get stronger and more powerful people are going to rely on their hand held devices even more making it very important that all business get involved with the online mobile space sooner than later.

3. Trust Trumps All: Technology is growing at such a rapid pace that many of us dont really have the time to keep up with everything going on around us. We are all in an era that is under a heavy content overload. Everywhere you turn online you see more news, more information and more ads. Consumers are trying to really bob and weave to avoid the junk that is being thrown at them everyday. Trust is going to drive purchases in the future. Online trust is going to have a very heavy decision factor for many companies and individuals looking to make a purchase online. With so many new websites and businesses making their way into search results the ability to really brand yourself and stand out from the crowd is going to be vital in the very near future. No more spammy SEO techniques for just ranking. You seriously have to brand your business online the right way to grow and prosper.

The search engine marketing space is changing every day. New unfathomable technologies creep up and infiltrate our communities on a regular basis creating brand new platforms for everyone to jump on and be part of. This is not going to slow down and applying SEO techniques from years past is not going to prepare you for the future. The future of search is happening right now. We can see the industry going through the changes already which means that businesses have to go through the changes as well.

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Will the SEO Bubble Burst ?

Being in the in the SEO industry for quite a while I have seen the industry speed up and grow extremely fast over the last five years and absolutely explode over just the last few years. Recently some are starting to understand that SEO is really a marketing approach and not a science project geared towards just achieving search engine rankings.

It is good that some businesses are starting to realize that this is the right approach that everyone should be taking and shifting their focus, but many are still clueless, dumping hundreds of articles and press releases per month, taking spammy approaches just to fill in the search engine results. What happens to all those companies that have been taking a science project approach and only worrying about rankings when Google and Bing drop the hammer on the SEO bubble? Will it ever happen? Who knows, people used to laugh when they heard the real estate industry would implode. Whos laughing now?

The search engines are clearly changing and I still see businesses everyday taking this horrendous approach to their SEO simply to achieve rankings. Google has come out and has clearly stated that personalized search will be making much more of an impact in the near future. When someone is logged into their Google account personalized search has already started taking shape. You can even read more about how personalized search works directly on Googles official webmaster blog. I think the problem is that most people have a hard time changing and the search engine marketing industry is very fast changing and fast moving industry that can quickly leave people behind if they dont pay attention to what is going on around them. SEO companies pop up over night with inexperienced individuals make shotty promises and performing subpar search engine marketing techniques just adding to that bubble.

As this continues that bubble keeps building and eventually sites like Google are going to drop the hammer on the whole search engine optimization industry. I can see the similarities between the SEO industry and the real estate industry clearly. The greed and the money symbols in some peoples eyes are inflating this industry leading it to its demise. The worst part about it is that many of us professionals are left with a tarnished image from all the bad apples. Too many businesses out there have already been burned leaving it very difficult for the ones that do it right to really get the credibility they deserve and to pass on their experience and industry knowledge to their Clients. I guess with every tool comes abuse it is just unfortunate to see it have gotten to this point.

Eventually this bubble is going to pop, where will you be when it happens? Will you have changed your ways and your techniques to cushion the blow? Or are you going to be scrambling around and trying to find out how to adapt at the 11th hour? It will be too late at that point. Like everything in life, what comes up must come down sooner or later and the search engines are getting ready for a much needed clean up.

This clean up will happen sooner than later piercing through the bubble and showering the industry with some upset individuals and firms. The problem stems from a lack of knowledge and not enough outside the box thinking. Outside the box thinking like how to put together a nice solid link bait campaign and not figuring out how to control the search results with a not so news worthy press release. Google is dropping a very large algorithm change towards the middle of 2010 which I strongly believe could be the first stages of not only speeding up the efficiency but eliminating the trash that makes its way into search results.

This could very well be the very first attempt to shifting peoples focus away from just rankings and shifting it over to simply marketing their business online the right way. The search engine industry is just getting started but it is growing very very quickly. Unfortunately there needs to be a shift in focus and I think we are starting to see that now. Customers dont become customers by bumping into one of your hundred articles that you released in one day. They become customers by trusting online brands over time.

Tags : Seo 1 comment

Make money online

Do you have a system and internet connection at home? Do you know you can make as much money as you want online? Yes there are a number of ways to make money online with just a system and an internet connection. The three major on line income generation methods include online investment, providing web-based services, and product sales. To begin with, you should first analyze your capabilities before venturing into any of the areas.

When it comes to online investment, you have a number of places in the internet to invest and get sumptuous returns for your investment. Good examples include mutual funds, online share trading, online commodity trading, virtual gold and oil trade, and the like. However, you need an initial capital to begin these lucrative online businesses. It is imperative that you master yourself with the online money transactions, such as net banking, use of credit cards, paypal, etc. before investing your hard earned money. When it comes to online investment credit and debit cards play a major role in money transaction. There are also service providers such as money bookers and pay pal that assist in online buying or selling.

If you are wondering how safe is paypal in terms of large amount of money transaction. You should realize that most online businesses have adopted paypal as their favorite service provider.

It is due to the ease of use and low service charges. The best way to learn on transaction is to start an account and try buying products online. Once you experience the pleasures and swiftness of online transaction you will certainly prefer online transactions over conventional ones.

Online sales are yet another lucrative way to earn money. However this too will need initial investment however, a little less than direct investment plans. You need to spend on marketing in order to achieve desired targets. It is important that you choose products that are in great demand in the internet world.

In case you dont want to invest yet earn money online, the only way is to provide services. For example you can take up web designing if you have the skills to develop templates. Some other common internet services in vogue include, online marketing, affiliate programs, writing, data entry, data collection, online surveys and many more. If you are capable of providing any of the services mentioned above you can certainly earn good money at the comfort of your home.

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Hints to Upgrade Website

Content and images are always factors you can add to your website. Any web designer would add text and visualizations to the website. When dealing with large images, you can always put the description below the image, to emphasize the image and make visible the description of the image. Always avoid hidden text, these are the ones that blend with the background, always consider using black against a light background. In the text image, use keywords .

Keyword saturation contributes is the percentage of page content. It is important when ranking pages. It is a situation where keywords are too narrow than the text-content. Keywords should only be indicative and should contribute only five percent of the content. Seldom do websites succeed with high saturation. If you always use the same keyword or fragments, this will lower down the web page ranking. Users nowadays want to conserve time by adding a few words for more precise results, often disappointed by some results. If your website is for search engines specifically, then you may get many visitors, but not as much sales.

Keep in mind, search engines are basically made for people, not programs. Robot method is also a factor, but only secondary. Keep your marketing copy balanced: content, design and interest.

Keywords are the thoughts of people. If the website has many confusing terminologies people may refer to, each reference should be available on the page. Getting inbound connections is only one problem. Another is the position of the search engine and site content. Unnecessary pop ups should be kept away. There are some websites that may be booming now, but will end up banning its users. Google may be consulted to check if the website is banned form it or not.

Many successful Online Markets have full knowledge of the value of search engine ranking. A good ranking means that you can have a continuous increase of visitors, which can lead to high profit and income.

Learn to use SEO and you can become a competent marketer. All successful marketers have full knowledge of SEO.

To start with, you need to know how a search engine operates.

A search engine is used to browse relevant results when a user inputs in the search menu words, or phrases. The ability of the search engine to provide accurate information will determine the success of the website. The more popular and utilized, the greater the profit and potential business. Before Google, Altavista was the most popular search engine because it provided superior results a few years back then. Now, Google replaced it with far more superior abilities like speed and accuracy.

Search engines have web crawlers or spiders that looks at all pages of the website and shows back results to the search engine databases. Then they organize data using superb calculation and logic, that Online Marketers are interested to know.

The more links form other website, the more your website will be supported by the web crawlers, and will add to the fame and ranking of your website.

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