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Google Analytics explained

June 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
google analytics

google analytics

When you start a website, you really should be tracking things.  Google Analytics is the perfect tool to do just that.  It is powerful and very customizable and has great looking reports.  Plus you can track a ton of things once you know what you are doing with it.  And best of all it’s Free.

But some still ask why use it?  If you have a website you are trying to make a profit from, Google analytics can help.  You can see things and how visitors actually use your website.  You can see things like which keywords are performing the best and which content is the most popular.  Plus you can see other data like bounce rates which help you understand why people stay or leave your website.

If you are using pay per click then you can track how well your campaigns are performing and how much money you are actually spending.  This is very important for pay per click because you can lose your shirt if you don’t track how much you spend and where the money goes.

Analytics uses Asynchronous JavaScript code which is better than traditional code which is loaded in the head of the document and not near the body tag.  This reduces latency and data accuracy concerns.

You can also setup accounts for an administrator and regular users if you have a team of people who need to work with analytics.

In Google analytics you can set up three types of conversion tracking.  These are: Adwords conversion tracking, ecommerce tracking and Goal tracking.  Each one of these is important depending on the type of website you have.

The best way to learn how to use Analytics is, setup and account and then use the program.  After familiarizing yourself with it bit you can also try some of the Analytics training.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/education.html

You can also learn a lot about analytics from their blogger blog.

http://analytics.blogspot.com

Taking the time to learn Google Analytics can be very beneficial for your website and internet marketing career.  Once you start to use analytics you can see exactly what you need to do to get more visitors and produce more income.

Filed Under: Website performance Tagged With:

Using Google Alerts to Get Links to Your Website

June 5, 2011 By 2 Comments

Inbound links, every website wants them and needs them.  There are various ways to get inbound links.  There are also right ways and wrongs ways to get them.  Using Google alerts to get links to your website is yet another way to get backlinks.  Using Google alerts you can get quality links to your website.  Many people do not know the value of using Google alerts.

One of the best things about using Google alerts to build backlinks is, you can be one of the first to get a link on a specific web page.  You can also use alerts to build backlinks to high quality .edu or .gov websites.  Now, keep in mind just because a link is from a .edu or .gov web pages, it does not mean it is always the best.  For instance, a link from a top level domain of a .edu say that a teacher maintains is worth more than a link from a students .edu web page.

Link building expert Eric Ward suggests a way to use Google alerts to build high quality links.  Here’s how to do it.  Go to alerts and set up a specific alert.  Set up one alerts to do a web search and set up another to do a comprehensive alert.  Set both up to be sent to you once a day.

Eric uses the example for a campaign he did for the travel channel website.  In it he sets up his alert like this:

“useful travel sites” library  -travelchannel site:.edu

An alert set up this way will email you any library websites which has a list of travel resources that does not include the travel channel.  Once you start receiving these alerts you can then contact the webmaster or librarian and try to get a link on that web page.

This is a great way to get backlinks to your website and using Google alerts to get links to your website is yet another awesome way to get proper backlinks.

Filed Under: Link building Tagged With:

Getting listed in the Dmoz Open Directory.

June 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Dmoz open directory project

Dmoz open directory project

The open directory is the holy grail of directories.  Many people try and get listed there every year and some do get listed while others fail.

But what makes the open directory so important and why is it good to get listed there?

For one thing, Google places a huge importance on the open directory.  Many of the search results you see listed on the Google Serps come straight from the open directory.

The Open Directory has been around for a longtime and is a human edited directory.  Google currently and we say currently sees this directory as a good thing.  But things can and do change with the internet landscape.

How to get listed in the open directory project

Getting listed in the Open Directory Project is a great thing.  However actually getting a Dmoz open directory listing is not that easy.

As we stated the directory is human edited and each category has usually one person who over sees the category.  This is why it can be very hard to get in.  But follow the guidelines below and you should have a better chance at obtaining a listing in this open web directory.

  1. Do not submit your site until you have at least 30 pages.
  2. Make sure your website is fully done and all design is in place.
  3. Make sure you have all privacy notices and terms in place.
  4. Make sure you submit your website to the appropriate category.

There are other rules you can follow, however those are all the basic rules you need to getting listed.

One of the biggest things we hear when people don’t get listed is they tried to list their website in the wrong category.  This is huge with the Open Directory.  Always make sure you are submitting to the best category for your website.

The last thing about getting listed is waiting.  Yep, you read that right.  Getting listed in the open directory can take months.

Remember it is a free directory.  Some people have reported as long as five months.  But do not fear, just keep up with your website and don’t worry about it.  Keep building good content.  If you don’t get listed the first time around you can always submit again.

But we caution you to wait at least five months and do not submit your website more than twice a year.  The dmoz open directory project is well worth the wait, so don’t try and rush it.

Filed Under: Link building, Search engine optimization Tagged With: ,

Submit your website to ISEDN.org for Backlinks

June 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you are looking for better exposure for your website and would like to get listed in Google a little quicker than you can use the Independent Search Engine and Directory Network.  The ISEDN is a gathering of over 50 search engines and directories.  This can help with your search engine optimization seo.

When submitting various websites we have found our listings in the Big three engines happened within a week.

This helped with our search engine optimization strategies.  We use this submitter service as a backlink powerhouse.  We have not found any significant gains in traffic from the service, other than getting listed in the major SERPS quicker.

We have submitted new websites and found many were gaining new keywords from Google quicker.

The best part about this service is it’s free to submit your website.  Once you submit your website you may have to confirm your submissions via email.

It’s best to use a junk email address to do this.  You should not be overwhelmed with confirmation emails but you will receive a few.

The ISEDN does have a paid search advertising service also where they state it’s better than Google Adwords.  However, we have not found this to be the case.  While we have used their Pay per click type service from time to time for certain keywords.  Some of the keywords were traffic getters while others were not.

We have been using ISEDN.org since about 1995 and it has never failed us when submitting websites.  All in all we have found this to be a good service for obtaining backlinks rather quickly.

If you have a new website you may want to hold off until a few months have gone by before submitting your website to the independent search engines.

http://www.isedn.org

Filed Under: Link building, Search engine optimization Tagged With:

Local Business Website Marketing Tips

May 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you have a local business website and are trying to gain customers through the internet then there are a few things you need to know. If your website only has 5 to 10 pages, you will need more.  Sure you can sometimes get a few leads through a few pages especially if they rank well.  But one day you may lose that rank and you only have a few pages to save you.  Never fear take down these local business website marketing tips.

You need to make your website informative.  Adding more pages gives you more keywords to attract more customers.  Now, with keywords there is really no easy way.  You will have to think like your customer and think up keywords they may use.  Try to think of buying keywords that solve problems.  More action oriented keywords.  He more you come up with the better chance you have at gaining more customers.

Next is link building.  Now, a local business website can be easy to rank for one you have the right links.  But you don’t want to ignore the traffic and leads you can get from obtaining links from relevant websites.

Let’s just say you own a landscaping company and you have a website.  The thing to do would be try to trade links with or get one way links from other local relevant companies.  So you might go out and try to get links from, heating and air companies, Deck building companies, concrete companies and so forth.

Now the trick here is when trading links with other local websites you goal should be two fold.  You should try and get links from websites have been established on the internet for a while.  Don’t always worry about page rank here.  You are a local website.  Some of the best websites to get links from or exchange links with may not have great page rank.  Focus on if they have been online for 5 years or more.

Next use the Alexa toolbar to see if they get a good amount of web traffic.  If they do and they have a legitimate website you can get good traffic from having a link on their website.  As a general rule any website with an Alexa rank of 500,000 or less is good.  But you are going after a local market.  You may have to accept less.

As you can see, building a website with a good amount of content will bring leads.  Incoming links will also help with rankings and traffic.  Your local business website should be much more than a brochure.  It can be a traffic gushing, lead generating business if you let it.

Filed Under: Link building, Local business websites, Search engine optimization, Web promotion, Website traffic Tagged With: , ,

Content for traffic

May 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
content

content

Content is king on the internet when it comes to websites.  The more content you have the more traffic you will receive.  If you are just starting a website or blog you may have heard this before.

Maybe even to the point where you turn your head and tell yourself there must be another way.

But the truth is the internet is changing constantly and if you want good placement in Google then, not only content but quality content will be your king.

Having more content is like a “SEO lottery” as John Reese states.  The more you have the more chances you have to be found.

This is all very true.  You see, many people believe they will just have to put up a website with so many pages and that will be it.  This may have been the case before but it is not now.

Let’s say you have 100 pages and you are doing very well in the serps.  Well the next big update comes along and if there is something you did wrong you will suffer.

Take for instance Google’s panda update.  This update alone but many websites off the map.  Some even out of business.  But if you have plenty of content you will suffer far less.  Take for instance ezinearticles.com.  Did they suffer?

Sure they did.  They lost a good amount of traffic with the update.  But did they go out of business?  Nope, they have so many pages all over the internet, they were not severely affected.

If you don’t believe me take a look at their Alexa rank.  Take the time to check things out for yourself before you believe what you read of what others say.

I have talked with Elad from http://www.coollest-kid-parties.com.  Elad’s website is a Site Build It website.  He enjoys first page rankings for many keywords and receives plenty of traffic daily.  Do you know what his strategy was?  Content and more content.  Well, and proper keyword research.

With plenty of content you cannot lose.  You will be found everywhere.  It’s that important!  This is why it’s important to pick a topic you love to write about.

Or you can take things on a much more grand scale and hire a writer and then put those pages up on a website.  Of course this is what you do if you enter markets you know nothing about.

Content, is so important.  And if you have good content all the better.

Filed Under: Website traffic Tagged With: , ,

Twitter For Marketing Webinar!

May 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
twitter-logo

twitter-logo

Twitter has exploded online as not only a social media outlet but also as a business owners can market their business websites.  Many people surf twitter day in and day out and not only tweet but read others tweets.

So how do you use it for your business or website?  Hubspot has just the answer you may be looking for.  They have recently put on a webinar that explains how to use twitter as a marketing tool to it’s fullest potential.    The webinar covers the basic’s and then some.

You can download the webinar at the link provided below.

http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-webinars/twitter-archive/?source=BlogTwitter

Don’t ignore Twitter.  You may be thinking you don’t have the time or energy to use Twitter as a marketing tool.  There are many ways to market your business on Twitter and you can set it up in advance so it’s post’s tweets for you days or even weeks in advance.  This can be very powerful if you have the right audience.

Filed Under: Social media Tagged With: , , ,

How To Choose a Web Host

May 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Web hosting these days can be cheap but that does not necessarily mean good.  So, how do you choose a web host these days?  There are several key factors you want to look at before you choose one.  Plus you need to figure out what you need for you business website.  If your not careful and really don’t know what you are doing then you can end up steam rolled into paying more than you really need.

Plus some web hosts have more functions than others and other are more geared towards marketing and will have tools that you can discover and use as your business grows.

So here is a small list of things to look for when looking for a web host.

  1. Number one on our list is customer support.  You want a good host that people recommend.  Customer support is important becasue you will not know many things that need to be taken care of sometimes.  Plus if something breaks you want a host provider that will back you up and support you 100%.
  2. Next is up time.  You also want a host which can prove to you they have high up time and their servers do not crash all the time.
  3. Bandwidth is 3rd.  You want a host that will provide you with a good amount of pipeline.  Or atleast one that will easily upgrade your bandwidth as your website grows.
  4. Space.  You will want a host that can provide you with enough space for your business website to grow.  Many have different packages and you will need to compare between some providers.
  5. Do they provide PHP and Mysql support?  If you are planning on using a linux based host, then you will wnat to see what packages they offer for PHP and so on.

These are the basic things to look for when looking for a website.  There are many more but we wanted to aim this article to beginners looking for a business website.  Lat on we will cover more in depth about hosting providers.

One other thing you want to look out for is a web host that is forgiving.  If you plan to market your website and you are still new to marketing on the internet you may want to stay away from host providers that are strict on spam policy.  You may be excited to market your website and go overboard, you could then wake up one day and find your business website down and banned from the web host.  It pays to do your homework and find a host who will work with you.

Filed Under: Web hosting Tagged With: ,

Link Requests – Make it Count!

May 16, 2011 By 1 Comment
backlinks link requests

backlinks link requests

Link requests are something that every webmaster should do for their websites.  You want your link on good relevant websites so you can break up your linking profile.

With many webmasters today doing things such as social bookmarking, article marketing, blog commenting and others.  Good old link requesting has gone by the wayside.

But it still remains one of the best ways to get links.  It not only helps you in the search rankings, it also can bring traffic.  And, if done correctly if can bring a lot of traffic and leads.  But how do you make it count so you are not wasting your time?

Find the website owner

When you find a website you really think you want a link from, you will need to go the extra mile and find the website owner.

Just sending an email to the webmaster or IT staff won’t cut it here.  These people are more that likely to say no because they don’t understand the value of links like a website owner might.  You need to think of it as a business relationship when you are requesting links.  You may even need to call the website owner.

Getting traffic from links.

So many people today try and obtain backlinks for better rankings.  While good backlinks will bring you traffic through search don’t ignore the traffic finding links the right way can get your website.  You need to be smart about it.  If you do link building research on the internet check all the websites that are listed in the top ten of the search results.

See if they have a links page.  And no, we are not talking about link exchanges here.  While link exchanges can be ok to do as long as you do not over do it.  Getting one way links is a win win for your website.

Keyword county is one service that will allow you to search for partners via Alexa rank.  You can sort the websites and see who gets the most traffic and from what page gets that traffic.  Then you can request the link.  Anything under 500,000 Alexa rank is a good start.

The last point we want to make here is, it you focus on quality it might not take as many links as you think.  Eric ward, the father of link building sometimes says all it takes is 20 links, while others take more.  However, it may take a while to find those links.  Just don’t shortcut the process.  And you will be rewarded with traffic and rank.

Link Requests – Make it Count!

Filed Under: Link building, Web promotion, Website traffic Tagged With: ,

Configure the wordpress ping service

May 16, 2011 By 2 Comments
wordpress-ping-service

wordpress-ping-service

WordPress, in a word we love it.  It is a gift from the gods.  But if you are new to WordPress, then you may not know everything about it.  Sure WordPress does take some time to learn everything, but once you do you start to see just how much time it saves you.

One of the greatest features of wordpress is it’s ability to ping.  Whenever you make a post wordpress will ping whatever ping service it is configiured to do so with.  This is a really good thing.  And once you configure it the rigth way you can get more links and have more traffic coming to your website.

WordPress by default is configured for pingomatic.com, but you can add more services to it.  See the list below.

http://rpc.twingly.com
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.feedsubmitter.com
http://blo.gs/ping.php
http://www.pingerati.net
http://www.pingmyblog.com
http://geourl.org/ping
http://ipings.com
http://www.weblogalot.com/ping

All you need to do is go to the writing settings from the WordPress menu and from there at the bottom you can configure and add more
ping services.  That's it that's all you need to do to start gaining more backlinks and traffic.
Filed Under: Web promotion, Website traffic, Wordpress Tagged With: , ,
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