Create a Google Sitemap for your Web Site

By Herman Drost

Google Sitemaps is a simple and fast way for your site to be constantly indexed and updated by Google.

This article will discuss the benefits of implementing this new technology, who should use it, how it works and how to create a Google Sitemap for your web site.

Benefits of having a Google Site Map

1. Speeds up the discovery and addition of your web pages in the Google index.

2. Enables Google to quickly find web pages that have been recently changed.

3. A method for your site to be listed and appear quickly in Google.

4. Helps Google to keep search content fresh, so people have the most up to date information available.

Who should use Google Sitemaps?

All site owners can use Google sitemaps whether you have one page or millions of pages, however it's mostly geared towards people that make frequent changes to their web pages.

Normally web pages on a large site will not all get indexed because the links are too deep within the site. By including all your pages in the Google Sitemap you have a better chance of them all being indexed as Google thrives on fresh content. According to Google, it won't increase your site's rankings.

How does it work?

Google sitemaps are created using XML (Extensible Markup Language). This is a coding language similar to HTML(though a little more complex). It is often used these days in syndicated feeds or blogs.

Here is the sample XML code you would include for each page of your site:

[url]
[loc]http://www.yoursite.com/[/loc]
[lastmod]2005-07-15[/lastmod]
[changefreq]monthly[/changefreq]
[priority]0.5[/priority]
[/url]

Here is a breakdown of what each line represents:

location - name of your webpage ie http://www.yoursite.com

last modified - when you last modified the page.

change frequency - tells Google how often you modify that particular page, whether it's never, weekly, daily, hourly, monthly or yearly.

priority - sets the priority you want Google to place for that page on your site. You can prioritize your pages: 0.0 being the least, 1.0 being the highest, 0.5 is in the middle.

This is only relative to your site. It will not affect your rankings. Certain pages on your site may have more significance than others because they are updated more often ie home page, articles page.

How to Create a Dynamic Google SiteMap XML File

It would take a long time to create your Google Sitemap by hand especially if you have a site that contains 1000s of pages.

Fortunately Google provides the Sitemap Generator that allows you to generate a sitemap very quickly. It's a Python script that creates a Sitemap for your site using the Sitemap Protocol. This script can create Sitemaps from URL lists, web server directories, or from access logs.

You can read more about it here:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

Other Sitemap Generators

Google has also compiled a list of third party generators.

Personally I use the free sitemap generator. It's simple to use and quickly produces the necessary XML code for your site.

Here are the steps on how to create your Sitemap using this free Sitemap Generator:

1. Go to http://www.sitemapspal.com and enter your site's address.
2. Copy the code that it generates for your site and paste it into notepad.
3. Save the text file as sitemap.xml
4. Upload this file to the root directory (same place as your home page) of your web server.
5. Open up a Google Site Map account and submit your site's address.
6. Every time you modify a page or pages, login to your Google account and click on the resubmit button.
7. Repeat this procedure for all of your web sites.

Conclusion

Google is still the largest and most accessed search engine on Net. Each year millions of web sites get added to Google making your site harder to find. Creating a Google Sitemap will help your web pages stay fresh in Google's index.

About the Author:

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com. Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting. Subscribe to his "Marketing Tips" newsletter for more original articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com. Read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles

Affiliate Marketing Nightmare - Don't Let This Happen To You!

By Chris Ellington

Everyone knows that affiliates can make or break a company's success rate. Ken Evoy has a whole army of people motivated to earn click-through commissions on his Site Sell program. Marlon Sanders and Yanik Silver have made fortunes with (and for) their affiliates.

"If you've got an e-commerce website," I was frequently told by my internet savvy friends, "you have GOT to have an affiliate program." I took that to heart. "Ok!" I said, and when I created www.ArticleMarketer.com, I made sure that I developed a compelling offer for affiliates.

So what's the nightmare? Here I had created the perfect program for affiliates and what kind of results was I getting? None. Nada. Zilch. A big fat zero. There was no lineup of affiliates banging at the door.

Has this happened to you? Is your affiliate program going nowhere? Here is the step-by-step analysis of what makes an affiliate program take off, and how my results were impacted by each one.

Offer a good deal - make it worth their while Affiliates will not promote your product because it "feels good". An emotional payoff might be sufficient for non-profit organizations or political campaigns, but that's not enough in the cold, hard world of e-commerce. Affiliates are looking for products and services that quickly convert to sale.

Affiliates don't mind pre-selling your goods to their lists and visitors, but you have got to make it worth their effort. Don't be cheap. Give your affiliates a good deal. Unless you're selling Lear Jets or Rolls Royces, that 5% commission you are thinking about isn't going to get anyone excited about being your representative.

How did I fare against this point? I nailed it. I made sure to offer 50% commissions and a lifetime customer program. Residual and recurring revenue are automatic. For any customer that one of my affiliates sends to my site, they get paid. Not just on the first sale either. They get paid every time that person spends money, renews a subscription, or buys something else.

But evidently that was not enough. I had my program set up to offer a good, profitable deal for affiliates. So I moved to the next point:

Provide personal service - be responsive

Affiliates are your business partners, not cattle to be herded. Treat them with respect, provide them with the tools they need to be successful, and be responsive when your affiliates ask for help, guidance or tools. In the end, it will make things better for you. Make sure you take care of your affiliates.

Well I am a naturally outgoing guy, so I have a tendency to reach out to customers, partners and business associates. It's just who I am. I like people. I send email, write articles, post in the blog - I'm a communicative guy. I've got my phone number on the site, and I personally answer my phone. So personal service couldn't be my problem. But still, why weren't people signing up to be affiliates? I moved on to the next point:

Why You?

It's likely that you're not the only company offering the chance to sell a product or service like yours. Give your prospective affiliates a reason to choose your program over your competitor's. Do you do it faster, better, cheaper? Why is it going to be easier and more profitable to sell for you than for someone else? Why do you deserve their attention? Why do you deserve the attention of their visitors?

With 20 years of direct sales under my belt, I certainly know how to craft a presentation to crush my competition. I put direct comparisons to other article submission services right on my home page. I created an instructional video to make it easy to submit articles. Audio prompts explain every step of the way. I have a long listing of places that articles are submitted. There is no reason someone would want to do article submission on their own (because it's tedious) or with any of my competitors (they don't have the reach, and their prices are exorbitant) so I knew that there was no problem in this area. So I moved on to the final point.

Promote! Promote! Promote!

You have to be as diligent in promoting your affiliate program as you are in promoting your products. You have to let people know that you've got a great deal for them. You must let people know that you have an affiliate program, you must provide tools, banners, graphics, articles, ads, and links that they can use to drive traffic to your site.

This was my problem. I was suffering under a "If you build it, they will come" delusion, and it almost killed my response. I didn't even know how hidden my affiliate link was, until I had a conversation (remember, I'm a talkative guy) with a new affiliate. She was an existing customer. She had been to the site, pored over it, in fact, and had asked questions. She had
used our services, so when I asked her what prompted her sudden interest in joining the affiliate program, I was shocked by her response. "I didn't even know you were set up for affiliates until I read it in Michael Campbell's Internet Marketing Secrets newsletter. (www.internetmarketingsecrets.com)

When I saw that he was telling people how great your service was, I said, "Hey, I can do that!"

So it wasn't until I started promoting the service that I discovered how important it is to promote the affiliate program as much as it is to promote the article submission service itself. To ensure that it's easy to find, I have moved the affiliate link on my site. It's now prominently displayed right in my main navigation and clearly marked "Become an Affiliate".

I hope that you'll take this story to heart and implement these four techniques. Start by adjusting your program, make sure you talk with your customers, check your value proposition, and then begin trumpeting your affiliate program from the rooftops. You'll see a quick improvement in your affiliate sign ups!

About the Author:

Chris Ellington gives effective and easy to implement marketing strategies to small business owners and home business entrepreneurs. His Article Marketer website drives thousands of targeted web visitors to your site by distributing your articles to editors and publishers around the world. Try it for free at www.ArticleMarketer.com.

Making A Good First Impression

By Trey Pennewell

You only get once chance to make a first impression. This is true with all things in life, and it is true for an online business.

The reason why your first impression on the Internet is so very important is because most visitors and potential customers will only give your website a 15 second overview, before deciding whether to stay or to move one. Your homepage is how you get your foot in the door with surfers. If your homepage has a poor appearance or is not user friendly, your visitor will likely move on to one of your competitors.

You have seen poorly designed websites and homepages. They are the ones with the annoying pop ups that you cannot get away from, the ones that make it difficult to find vital information that you are looking for, and the ones that are fraught with grammatical and spelling errors. I recently saw a website that had a side scroll window that I could not close. The worst thing about it was that the window overlapped the text on the homepage that I was trying to read. It cut off the first few letters of each sentence. This may not have been so bad if I was able to close the scrolling window, but I could not.

I have also seen websites that make it so difficult to find prices, membership information, contact information, and so forth, so much so that I simply gave up and went to a different site. I left the poorly designed site and went to a competitor's website, even though I liked the first website's product the best.

Perhaps it is because of my line of work, but nothing stands out to me more than poorly written content. Whether it is grammatical errors or spelling errors, I cannot help but focus on them. When I see a website where multiple words are misspelled, I usually leave, because poor grammar and spelling gives me the impression that the Webmaster does not care enough about his website to proofread it. In my mind, I cannot help but think that if the Webmaster doesn't proofread the content, he or she will probably not be very detail oriented when it comes to meeting my customer needs. Remember that you only get one chance to make that first impression with potential customers and to get those customers to bookmark your website.

Now, before you start thinking that I am the spelling police of the Internet, I completely understand how easy it is to make minor errors. However, this is your business, and ultimately your homepage is your best advertisement to potential customers. In this regard, there is no room for errors. You need to make your homepage as customer friendly and professional as possible. With so many competitors on the Internet fighting for customers, you need to exercise control over the areas that you can control.

Correct spelling and good grammar is perhaps one of the simplest things that you can control, when you are trying to create a professional image with your potential customers.

Not everyone feels comfortable with his or her writing skills. Others simply do not have the time or desire to write their website content or free reprint articles. Luckily, there are many
writers who are eager to write your content for you. Many of these writers have years of experience and have written many articles, sales pages, and other types of content.

Employing a writer who can provide you with quality, well-written articles is especially important for those who use English as a second language. I have read and edited articles written by people whose first language was not English, and there have been many spelling and grammatical errors. Even those who reside in the United Kingdom or Australia may want to consider to whom they are marketing. If you are marketing to an American audience, then a U.K. Webmaster may want to seek out an American writer, since there are many minor differences in the dialect. This is also true for Australian webmasters.

The worst foreign language offenders are those who rely on automated translation programs. If, for example, a Webmaster writes an article or site content in German and uses automated translation software, the words will be translated, but the readability of the copy will be lost. I once edited articles for a person, whose first language was not English, and he had used one of these automated software translation programs. Even I had a difficult time understanding what some of the sentences were trying to say. If you need assistance translating business documents, articles or sales copy from one language to another, may we recommend: http://www.linkexchange.etranslate.com/

The bottom line is that you want to turn your website visitors into customers. To do this, you need to make a good first impression. It is difficult to know what exact marketing technique will attract customers to your website. But, it is easy to make sure that your website is easy-to-navigate, easy-to-read, and most importantly, that it has a professional appearance. If your text is misspelled and poorly written, many customers will turn away from your site, and they will look for another website whose webmaster took the time to ensure a professional appearance for his or her website.

About the Author:

Trey Pennewell is a ghost writer at http://www.thePhantomWriters.com. On September 9, 2005, TPW had more than 50 Pre-Written ghosted articles available for purchase on a wide variety of topics. Custom ghost writing is also available on a job-by-job basis for a variety of writing needs. If you need to have very specialized ghost writing work done on your behalf, contact us to see if any of our three dozen ghost writers can meet your needs.

Learn What 98% Of Targeted Visitors Do On Your Website

By Tony Simpson

Getting a Targeted Visitor to a website is a waste of time and money if you've got no idea what 98% of them do when they get there.

I'm assuming that if you have a website selling products that your conversion rate is at least 2%. So you should know at least what 2 out of every 100 targeted visitors do and that's make a purchase.

But do you know what they did before they made a purchase and if they'd have purchased sooner, if it were not for some issue they had with your website?

How much do you know about what 98 out of 100 or 98% of your targeted visitors are doing? If the answer is a big fat zero, you're throwing money down the drain and missing a golden opportunity to learn from every targeted visitor not just 2% of them.

If you could discover a way to stop and ask every targeted visitor why they're leaving your website and they'd give you a reply, would you be interested?

Sure you would, what website owner wouldn't. OK if you said No, then you'd better stop reading this now. Of course no such way exists to stop and ask every leaving targeted visitor. Until it does the only way to learn from a targeted visitor is ask them to complete a survey or learn about their behaviour on a website using targeted visitor tracking.

If you're using just web hosting stats to tell you what your targeted visitor is doing then you're putting yourself at a very big disadvantage. So you know what countries your traffic comes from, what URL's referred them, the total number of pages viewed each day and what part of the day gets most traffic. Well that's better than nothing.

If you have a good web hosting stats package you may even know how much time a targeted visitor group spends on your site. From this at least you know how many visitors found your site interesting enough to stay longer than 30 seconds.

But do you know exactly which pages are viewed each day, what page links are clicked, or if running Adsense Ads, what Ad your targeted visitor clicked on?

If you're still wondering exactly how tracking what a targeted visitor does on you website can help you, let me explain.

By tracking what pages get the most views day by day, you can tell what pages a targeted visitor finds interesting.

If you change the content of a page you can track how many more, or less times the page is viewed. By learning what content interests a visitor you can supply more of it rather than guessing what they're interested in. More interesting relevant content means potentially more visitors.

By tracking changes in the navigation to a page you can tell if the page then gets more visits.

Pages could have content that a targeted visitor would find interesting but your existing navigation may be what's stopping them from finding them. By making a change to the navigation and tracking page views for that page over the following days, you can compare the results with what you had before the change was made.

By tracking any Adsense Ads you know which Ads are being clicked on and can therefore increase your exposure for those Ads.

You do this by creating similar content pages that will feature that type of Ad. This gives you the opportunity to get more Adsense revenue.

By tracking a targeted visitor returning to your website after clicking away you can judge how interesting they find your website.

How much do you know about what your targeted visitor does on your website before they made a purchase?

Tracking tells you what links a purchaser clicked on, what pages they viewed before they purchased and even if they came from one of your own Ads.

It's an established fact that most people don't make a purchase on the first visit. They will have a look around a website, then come back hours or days later, perhaps even several more times before they make a purchase.

It's possible to track all this activity and even have a report emailed to you after your targeted visitor buys.

Armed with this sort of information you can see how often the purchaser returned before they made a purchase, on what dates and what pages they viewed.

If they kept coming back to the same page they could have found something they were unsure about. This gives you the chance to take a look at that page, experiment with some changes and track the results.

If you think targeted visitor tracking is only within the reach of big corporate websites with big budgets you'd be mistaken. You can implement all the targeted visitor tracking I've described on any website, for a single payment of less than $120 and no monthly fees.

A targeted visitor tracking system that enabled you to make just minor improvements to your website could pay for itself in 17 days!

Let's say you get 45 targeted visitors to your website every day and 2% of them buy a product costing $47. Your website earnings would be 45 x 2% x $47 or $42.30 per day.

Now let's assume by using targeted visitor tracking you learn enough from your visitor behaviour to make some improvements to the content and navigation on your website.

Let's further assume your changes improve your website conversion rate from 2% to 2.1% and increase the number of targeted visitors from 45 per day to 50 per day because they find your content more relevant and interesting.

Doing the same math's again but with 50 targeted visitors and 2.1% purchasing the same $47 product, the website earnings would be 50 x 2.1% x $47 or $49.35 per day.

This means the minor improvements made from what you learned from your targeted visitor tracking have increased your website earnings from $42.30 per day to $49.35 per day, an increase of $7.05 per day.

This means from extra earnings of $7.05 per day and a targeted visitor tracking system costing $120 or less, the system paid for itself in 120/7.05 or 17 days.

In the 2nd part of this article Tracking a Targeted Visitor on Your Website I describe in detail, two systems that any website owner can use for targeted visitor tracking.

Now you have no excuse for gaining access to targeted visitor information you never knew you could and use it to your advantage.

Conclusion

Like many website owners you probably spend time and money getting targeted visitor traffic to your website only to get around 2% making a purchase. But you're pouring money down the drain if you don't learn from the 98% who didn't buy from you.

The only way to learn from a visitor is to ask them, or learn from their behaviour by finding out where they go and what they do on your website. The latter requires targeted visitor tracking systems in place on your website.

Even if what you learned from this targeted visitor tracking enabled you to make only minor improvements to your website, the system could pay for itself in 17 days.

About The Author:

Tony Simpson, Advises on Website Design, Promotion and Optimization. He also offers website design reviews through his Restricted Access Membership which is currently free to join, once you are accepted. The 2nd part of his article entitled "Tracking a Targeted Visitor on Your Website" is here.

How to Choose the Affiliate Software That's Right for You

By Peter Koning

With online advertising forecast to grow by 30% this year, the affiliate marketing segment is expected to grow in line with this estimate. Merchants are expected to either add affiliate marketing to their existing online sales channels or upgrade their platforms to expand their existing programmes even further.

A key part of running a successful affiliate program is being able to manage your affiliates efficiently and cost-effectively. Thankfully, there are software products to help you do this. The trouble is, with dozens of different affiliate software suppliers offering a wide range of features, functionality and pricing, how do you choose the right one?

There are six main types of affiliate software, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Once you choose and implement a particular solution, it can be complicated and expensive to switch. Be sure to do your research beforehand and choose a program that meets your needs both now and for the future.

1. Stand-alone Software

You pay a one-time fee to own the software. You install it on your web server where it integrates with your other systems, such as your e-commerce and CRM components.

Pros: Typically has extensive features and functionality. Ongoing fees are minimal and do not change with the size of your affiliate program. Affiliate links show your domain address because the software is hosted on your server. As more affiliates create more inbound links to your site, it can have a positive effect on your search engine rankings.

Cons: Requires installation, which you will need to pay for if you cannot do it yourself. Having the software on your server may require a bigger web hosting package, resulting in higher hosting charges.

2. Hosted (ASP) Software

The software is provided as a service by a third party. They host it on their server and you pay to access it.

Pros: Upgrades are typically included and are rolled out as soon as they are available. Requires no technical skill as installation and hosting is handled by the vendor. Upfront costs are lower.

Cons: Ongoing monthly fees are usually based on volume of transactions. As your affiliate program grows, your costs may grow as well. Some vendors may not allow links that go first to your domain - reducing the added benefit of inbound affiliate links and search engine positioning.

3. Affiliate Networks

Again, the software is hosted and provided by a third party. You also gain access to an established community of people who are actively looking for affiliate opportunities.

Pros: No technical skill or maintenance required. Instant access to a large pool of potential affiliates, which can help build your program quickly. Usually the network handles the administration of the entire program, including affiliate payouts and reporting. You do nothing but upload your affiliate offers to the network site.

Cons: The network takes a relatively high transaction fee on each affiliate sale. Minimal options for customizing the program to your specific needs.

4. MLM Software

Multi-level marketing (MLM) is often considered the "black sheep" of the affiliate marketing concept. However, there is significant overlap between MLM and affiliate marketing. MLM talks about a "downline" whereas affiliate marketers refer to their sub-affiliates. Same concept, different name. Since there are software packages to manage an MLM business, you should not overlook this possibility for running your affiliate program.

Pros: Excellent for managing an affiliate program with multiple tiers.

Cons: There's a certain stigma attached to MLM. Potential affiliates may be scared away if they discover you are using MLM software.

5. Shopping Carts

Shopping cart software allows customers on an e-commerce site to select items they wish to purchase and store them in their virtual shopping basket, before paying for their purchase in one electronic transaction. Many e-commerce shopping carts include affiliate management features as either a standard or add-on module.

Pros: E-commerce and affiliate management functions are integrated into one program, making maintenance easier and less expensive. The affiliate module is not typically based on volume so fees remain the same as your program grows.

Cons: Affiliate management is not the vendor's primary focus so the software may have less functionality than other software options.

6. Web Site Builder Systems

These all-in-one packages usually bundle web site building tools, web hosting, e-commerce and affiliate functionality.

Pros: Can help you launch a complete e-commerce site from scratch very quickly. Little technical expertise required.

Cons: Paying for many different services as one lump sum means you may be overpaying if you only want one or two pieces. Again, affiliate management is not the vendor's primary focus so functionality may be limited.

Whether it is the effectiveness of cookie tracking, the booming popularity off RSS and datafeeds, or companies using the latest tools in fraud and parasite detection, it's critical when choosing an affiliate provider to work with a company that is going to adjust to the market. The affiliate software solution that works best for you will depend on your affiliate strategy and requirements. Think about your needs, do your research, and choose wisely.

About the Author:

Peter Koning is the founder of www.Affiliate-Software-Review.com. He has been active in the international IT, telecom, and Internet industries for over 20 years.

Merchants can compare affiliate software products side-by-side, see examples of products in the categories mentioned, and instantly create free feature comparison charts by visiting
http://www.affiliate-software-review.com

The Five Ways You Should Be Using Keywords

By George Peirson

We have all read lots of articles on how to gather keywords, how to compile a huge keyword list, how to make these keywords relevant to our web site. But exactly what do we do with all these keywords once we have them?

Knowing where and how you can use your keywords will greatly improve the efficiency of your search engine optimization.

There are 5 places in a web page where you can use keywords:

The Title Tag
The Keyword Meta Tag
The Description Meta Tag
Alt Tags for images
Body copy on the page

Of these the page Body Copy, the readable text on the page, is the single most important place for your keywords. More about this later.

Let's first take a look at the Title Tag. This is one of the tags in the head section of the html code of your web page and lists the title that is displayed in the web browser. For instance, Internet Explorer displays this tag in the top bar of the browser window. But there are other uses for the Title Tag as well. Most search engines will index this tag for information about your site and many search engines will use this tag as the title of your listing.

In general you can use from 60 to 115 characters in a Title Tag. The Tag can include the company name, especially if it is a well known company, and should include your most important keywords. Consider this a short description of your web page. One more thing, the Title Tag is also used as the link when the URL is saved into a web browser favorites list.

The Keyword Meta Tag used to be the main way search engines indexed your page. Now-a-days many search engines will simply ignore this tag, but that may not always stay the case. Some search engines still take s look at this tag to help categorize your site. There is no reason not to have this tag on your page, just in case. You are not penalized for including a Keyword Meta Tag.

The keywords should be separated by a comma. Put more specific keywords first then put the less important and general keywords later on. Search engines no longer pay attention to the case of a keyword, so the keywords can all be lower case. I have seen recommendations of 25 keywords or 1000 characters in the list. In general Keyword pairs or triplets are better than single keywords. I try to have one or two lines of keywords if I use this tag.

The Description Meta Tag is slowly joining the Keywords Meta Tag on the lack of support list. But right now it is still a valuable place to use your keywords. Many search engines will look at the description Meta tag for keywords to compare against your body copy. Yahoo goes one step further and will use your description tag as the description of your site in their listings.

Consider the description tag just like it is named, a concise description of your site. Keep it to a short paragraph, under 50 words.

Alt tags are text descriptions that are included with the code used to display images on a page. Basically an Alt tag is the Alternate Text version of the image in case the image is not displayed. Alt tags are important for creating a fully accessible site for people who use screen reader technology that reads the page out loud through their computer speakers. Obviously an image cannot be read aloud, but the Alt tag can.

Alt tags are also displayed as a quick popup when you "hover" your mouse pointer over an image. Many search engines, including Google, will index the Alt tags along with the rest of the body copy, making these ideal places to slip in a few more keywords. Just keep in mind that the text should accurately reflect the content of the image. Plus don't use Alt tags on images that would not normally be read out loud, such as separator lines or bullets.

This brings us to the main place to use your keywords, the body copy on the page, the text that your visitors are reading when they visit your site. The major search engines will no longer give you a top placement just for having the most instances of a particular keyword on your page. They will give top listing to what they believe is the most relevant page on a topic.

Your job is to work your keyword into the text frequently, but appropriately. Select one or two keywords and make the page specifically about those keywords. Think of yourself giving a PowerPoint presentation to an audience of your best customers. Your PowerPoint slides will be your paragraphs. They should be concise and to the point, using your keywords to drive home your point. And, just like in a PowerPoint presentation, you can use bulleted lists to call out the several benefits of your site or product, each time relating it to your selected keyword.

So use your keywords appropriately on your site and use them where you can. This will greatly increase your search engine effectiveness.

Article copyright 2005 George Peirson

About The Author:

George Peirson is the CEO of How To Gurus. He is the author of over 30 multimedia based tutorial training titles. To see training sets and other articles by George Peirson visit http://www.howtogurus.com

Catapult Your Traffic With These Web Site Add-Ons

By Ronald Gibson

Having a website is great but, if the site doesn't have any traffic, then what good is it really doing for you? Here are some features that you can add to your site to generate more traffic and more stickiness for your site.

1. You should add a blog to your website. Blogs are a fast and easy way to add content to your site. Why is that important? Search engines love content. A frequently updated blog will attract the search engine spiders and will get your site indexed quickly. You should try to post blog entries at least a couple of times per day.
2. Add a message board to your web site. This helps your site to develop its own little community. People will visit your web site to ask questions and answer other people's questions.
3. Add a directory of web site links to your web site. People will visit your web site to find related web site links for the topic they're interested in. As an added bonus, links are also content for search engine spiders.
4. Add an article section to your web site. People will visit your web site to read and learn new info related to their interests. And this also will provide content for the search engines.
5. Add an archive of past e-zine issues to your web site. People will visit your web site to read past issues of your e-zine that they've missed.
6. People love freebies. You should add a f.ree software download page to your web site. People will visit your web site to find new software that will make their life easier. Also add a free ebook directory to your web site. People will visit your site to download, study and read new information.
7. Add a free classified ad section. People will visit your web site to place their own free classified ad and to read other offers.
8. Add a free link page to your web site. People will visit your web site to place their own link and to look at other people's links. This is a double bonus. Not only will you get traffic from the links, but, once again, links are also content that search engines love.
9. Add an "about us" page to your web site. People will visit your web site to read about your business and yourself.
10. Add a guest book to your web site. People will visit your web site to leave their opinions about your business and to list their signature file.

Using the above methods to add features to your website will not only draw more traffic to your site, but they will also make your visitors want to stay on your site longer and want to come back and visit again and again.

About the Author:

Ronald Gibson is a Web Designer and Web Marketer. He is the Webmaster of AffiliateUtopia.com, which offers information about some of the best money making opportunities on the Web. For more information, visit: http://www.affiliateutopia.com/

How Do You Know When You Have Enough Backlinks?

By John Taylor

We all know just how important it is to get as many incoming links as possible. The top search engines love backlinks; and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that link popularity plays an important role in their ranking algorithms.

Incoming links aren't just important to the search engines. The more links that you have that link directly to your site, the more opportunities there are for people to click them. Every opportunity to click a link is an opportunity to get a visitor to your web site.

So, if the "arrow" is your targeted visitor, then the incoming link is your bow. Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment that you take up archery! But I am suggesting that you get as many bowmen as possible to send targeted traffic to your site.

How do you know when you have enough bowmen?

How many incoming links is enough?

Here's a step by step process to get you the answer...

1. Choose your primary keyword and run off to your favourite search engine and run a search.



2. Identify the URL at the very top, the number one position, and copy the URL to your clipboard.



3. Now open another browser window and get to this page: http://www.link-advantage.com/popularity and paste the #1 URL from the search engine window into the search box. Don't click the "check" button just yet.



4. Go back to your search engine window and click to page two and capture the URL that is in the top of that page (#11 in the overall results).



5. Return to the Link-Advantage.com window and paste the #11 URL into one of the additional search comparison boxes.



6. Enter your own site's URL in one of the remaining boxes and then click the "check" button.

Now look carefully at the results. You now have two targets to aim for. You know how many links you need to beat the site that holds the #1 position; and you know how many links to get your site into the top ten position on that important first page of the results for your keyword.

Surprisingly, now you know what you are aiming for, you are much more likely to succeed and by using the http://www.link-advantage.com/popularity you have an easy way of keeping score.

In my link building experience, having a clear target and measuring progress can be a great motivator. However, it's important not to feel overwhelmed when you first start and see that you're going to need thousands of backlinks. Just set yourself a realistic target to aim for within your first week, or month, and get started.

Building link popularity isn't a one-off project, it's an ongoing and important part of building long term traffic.

Copyright John Taylor PhD September 2005 - All rights reserved.

About The Author:

To learn more information about Link Building & Link Popularity I strongly recommend that you visit http://www.Link-Advantage.com

Build SEO Links & Web Traffic With Content Distribution

By Joel Walsh

Many website owners and SEOs (search engine optimizers) believe that trading links is the most effective way to build the hundreds of links necessary for good search-engine ranking. But there's another way to build links that deserves your attention: content distribution.

A time-honored way of getting one-way inbound links to your website is to distribute content, usually articles, for other websites to publish in exchange for a backlink. Most often, the backlink is included in an "author's resource box," which is a brief "about the author" paragraph promoting the author's site.

Content distribution has usually been thought of as a website promotion strategy rather than an SEO or link-building strategy. But there are good reasons for adding content distribution to your SEO toolkit.

SEO Benefits of Distributing Content vs. Reciprocal Linking Alone

* Links come faster. You send an email with your article to a relevant website owner. That's it. No adding links to your site and then checking and re-checking for compliance. That means you can get more links from the time and resources you spend on link-building.

* Links are not always available through reciprocal linking. Many website owners simply refuse to do reciprocal linking. Content distribution is one way to reach this large segment of website owners.

* Links are one-way. Many SEO experts believe that reciprocal links may be "dampened" by the search engines; i.e., they will not help you rank as high as one-way links. Of course, reciprocal links are still valuable, there's a just a question of how valuable they really are.

* Links per page are fewer. Many SEO experts believe that the higher the number of links per page, the less SEO value each link has. When a website publishes an article, the author's backlink is often the only live link to another website on that page.

Distinct Non-SEO Benefits of Distributing Content

What makes content distribution a truly special method of link building is that it's the only method where the non-SEO benefits may even outweigh the SEO benefits:

* Website building. If you create special content for your link-building campaign, you can publish it on your site. As a general rule, the more content your site has, the more search engine traffic it will receive. Just publish the article and get it indexed in search engines before distributing it, which should help you to outrank your republishers in search engines for that same content.

* Traffic generation. The links in distributed content generate traffic in the form of highly qualified leads: people who liked what you had to say. Distributing content gets you traffic even when it doesn't get you a link. If your article gets picked up by a large-circulation email newsletter, you will get a flood of highly qualified traffic.

* Authority. Distributing content is the only linking campaign method that can make the recipient website and its owners appear authoritative. There are thousands of internet gurus who owe their lucrative reputations entirely to the articles they've distributed.

* Mindshare. Distributing articles is the only linking campaign method that can help you spread an idea. This makes article distribution invaluable for launching new products or services.

Drawbacks of Content Distribution

Of course, nothing good ever came easy. Any website owners who are looking for SEO magic beans will be disappointed by content distribution:

* Desired anchor text is not always available. Unfortunately, the content management systems most widely in place today make it easier for website owners to accept content as text rather than HTML. This means that many website owners simply have their content management system convert a URL into a live link, rather than taking the time to code in the anchor text. Still, an experienced content distributor can usually find ways around this problem to make sure that many if not most of the links use anchor text.

* Results are variable. Content distribution is not quite as sure a thing as reciprocal linking. The site that publishes your article has to like not only your site, but also your article. This is especially true for the passively-generated links that come from content clearinghouse websites. But results can vary the other way, too: an article that catches on will yield more links than you ever could have gotten through the same investment in reciprocal linking. In order to minimize the risk of content not catching on with website owners, you should make sure your content is high-quality, and also plan for a large content distribution campaign: the more content you try, the more likely you are to find a winner.

* Requires significant investment. You need high-quality content, expertise in content distribution, and quite a few work-hours to distribute the content and track the results. Of course, the cost has to be weighed against the cost of reciprocal linking, which is also significant. These costs can be mitigated by outsourcing the entire process from soup to nuts to a content distribution specialist. Costs of outsourcing content distribution compare favorably with costs of outsourcing reciprocal link building.

* Requires special expertise. There are numerous newbie pitfalls to distributing content, from improperly formatting articles to writing a bad introductory email to accompany content submissions. You generally have to have done numerous campaigns to truly get the feel for it. Again, this requirement has to be weighed against the real-world requirement of special expertise in other link campaign methods. Again, this drawback can be mitigated by outsourcing your project to a specialist.

In short, there are benefits to both reciprocal linking and content distribution. All things being equal, you should use both. Still, content distribution is the only one method that carries substantial non-SEO benefits as well. Plus, a professionally managed content distribution campaign may even yield greater SEO results than reciprocal linking would for the same investment.

You owe it to yourself or your clients to add content distribution to your SEO-toolkit--before the owner of the next highest-ranking site finds out about it.

About The Author:

Joel Walsh is the owner of UpMarket Content, offering a fully managed content distribution campaign guaranteed to get you at least one hundred one-way inbound links for every three pages of content via his website content distribution package.

10 Ways to Tackle Keyword Research and Selection

By Michael Murray

Effective keyword research requires many steps that go beyond your web site. It starts by knowing how your potential customers search.

You need to be extremely careful with keyword research so that you don't miss excellent opportunities or aim so broadly that you target phrases that will never rank well. Here are 10 strategies to guide you along the way:

1. Know your potential customers.

We can't tell you how many businesses we've met who simply pick keywords out of thin air. They don't talk to customers or hot prospects in order to determine what might be a useful set of keywords.

2. Start with core words.

A core set of keywords - even if too broad - can stimulate creative thinking.

3. Look at the industry.

Examine industry trade group web sites and related newsletters to find potential keywords.

4. Study competitors.

Some companies make a bigger deal of competitors' keywords than they should, but it's still a useful strategy. Invariably, a competitor will be using a strong keyword or phrase you don't want to miss. Often, however, they load their web sites with single keywords that aren't appropriate. If internet users are seeking cookware, their search terms shouldn't be laundry-based words. Yet we came across that very example. Be careful which words you use.

5. Be specific - add other words to your primary phrases.

If you sell metal, try metal stamping or metal stampers. Or, how about metal stamping companies? Words like services, companies, products, accessories, and many others can really pay off. Ok, everyone wants to rank #1 for terms like "toys" and "sports." It would take more time and budget than you may have to land such terms (through META updates, content adjustments and links).

6. Visit Wordtracker.

WordTracker is a great tool even if it only collects a sampling of actual searches (more than 300 million). You'll get a good sense of how frequently someone may search.

7. Use your intuition.

Don't hesitate to try some ideas; Wordtracker and other sources can confirm whether you have a search term people might or might not use.

8. Limit your selection.

Come up with a list of words - 10, 20, 30, maybe 50 or more. But don't get so many that you can't manage them all.

9. Tie keywords to site planning.

Pick keywords you can work with over time. Make sure you don't plan to drop a page from the web site or change it so often that your target keywords may be knocked off or irrelevant every 30 days.

10. Study your log files.

Web analytics is a great tool if you want to see how your visitors are searching. Study the results and you will come up with a revised set of keywords.

About the Author:

Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO, a search engine optimization firm in Cleveland, Ohio. A member of Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), he also authored the white paper, "Search Engine Marketing: Get in the Game."

Internet Directories to Improve Link Popularity

By Olivia Lambeth

You can jumpstart your link campaign by getting directory links. Building links, by listing your website in the search engines and directories, is one way of increasing your link popularity, especially if yours is a new site or one with no inbound links.

However, you should choose your directories and search engines well. But, the shortage of inbound links puts your site at a severe disadvantage because link analysis is an important part of every search engine's ranking algorithm.

So, you can overcome this disadvantage by getting a few quality links. And a good way to start is to get listed in as many directories as you can. There are many directories out there, and the more you can get into, the better. If you have a business related website, and it can't be accepted by non-for-profit directories, then you should try submitting it into business directories and should be prepared to pay a small fee for it. A good strategy is to contact a site that doesn't offer advertising or paid listing and offer a small amount of money in return for a link.

Chances are that few will be willing to accept your link. A few that you should try and get your site listed in, are Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org), Yahoo(http://www.yahoo.com), LookSmart (http://www.looksmart.com), Zeal (http://www.zeal.com), Joeant (http://www.joeant.com) and Business.com (http://www.business.com), Discount-Search.com (http://www.discount-search.com) or any other business directory if your site doesn't qualify for free submission.

And these directories and search engines are gold mines as linking partners, waiting and begging to be mined by an enterprising and prospecting webmaster. The most obvious Internet directory to start with, when beginning a comprehensive link search, is the well-known DMOZ directory. Its complete category and sub-category classification system makes it convenient for any website owner to find numerous sites within their area of business.

With DMOZ, there's no need to contact them for link exchanges if you're concerned about loss of visitor traffic to their sites. However, if you're not listed in the DMOZ directory, you can still find the category where your site would probably be included. And the process remains the same for finding link partners, whether your site is listed or not.

Another directory that is good is The Yahoo! Directory which has many of the same sites in its list as DMOZ. This is inevitable. There are, however, many sites listed in Yahoo! that are not part of the Open Directory Project. And this fact opens up many more possibilities for the webmaster.

When you go to the Yahoo! Directory, you must first go to your category, if you're already listed. But if you're site is not listed, you should select the most probable one. However, keep in mind that the listings are in alphabetical order, and may not have the same descriptions as the DMOZ directory. Then, use the same procedure as before, and your list of potential linking partners
will grow larger.

A third important Internet directory is the Google Directory. They use listings supplied by the Open Directory Project and the listings are very similar to those found in DMOZ. But, Google is different in that it orders the results from the highest PageRank listing to the lowest, making your sorting that much easier. Though, it should be remembered that some of the PageRanks on display are most probably out of date, and may not reflect the site's current PageRank.

But, if exchanges, for higher PageRank purposes are important to your site, then the Google directory is the answer to what you're seeking. However, as a general rule, don't let PageRank determine your linking partners. It's far more important to make your site helpful, for your visitors and customers.

And, since directories are an excellent source of theme related link partners for any website, you should use a major one for the search such as DMOZ, the Yahoo! Directory, or the Google Directory. So, finding potential linking partners is very easy when you use the major directories or search engines.

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About the Author:

Olivia Lambeth is a creative and multi-talented fashion designer and has worked with reputed Fashion Houses for the past 12 years. She specialised in Casual Wears but nevertheless her unique design for Formal and hand work is worth mentioning. Her site is at http://www.discount-search.com/

Learn What 98% Of Targeted Visitors Do On Your Website

By Tony Simpson

Getting a Targeted Visitor to a website is a waste of time and money if you've got no idea what 98% of them do when they get there.

I'm assuming that if you have a website selling products that your conversion rate is at least 2%. So you should know at least what 2 out of every 100 targeted visitors do and that's make a purchase.

But do you know what they did before they made a purchase and if they'd have purchased sooner, if it were not for some issue they had with your website?

How much do you know about what 98 out of 100 or 98% of your targeted visitors are doing? If the answer is a big fat zero, you're throwing money down the drain and missing a golden
opportunity to learn from every targeted visitor not just 2% of them.

If you could discover a way to stop and ask every targeted visitor why they're leaving your website and they'd give you a reply, would you be interested?

Sure you would, what website owner wouldn't. OK if you said No, then you'd better stop reading this now. Of course no such way exists to stop and ask every leaving targeted visitor. Until it does the only way to learn from a targeted visitor is ask them to complete a survey or learn about their behaviour on a website using targeted visitor tracking.

If you're using just web hosting stats to tell you what your targeted visitor is doing then you're putting yourself at a very big disadvantage. So you know what countries your traffic comes from, what URL's referred them, the total number of pages viewed each day and what part of the day gets most traffic. Well that's better than nothing.

If you have a good web hosting stats package you may even know how much time a targeted visitor group spends on your site. From this at least you know how many visitors found your site interesting enough to stay longer than 30 seconds.

But do you know exactly which pages are viewed each day, what page links are clicked, or if running Adsense Ads, what Ad your targeted visitor clicked on?

If you're still wondering exactly how tracking what a targeted visitor does on you website can help you, let me explain.

By tracking what pages get the most views day by day, you can tell what pages a targeted visitor finds interesting.

If you change the content of a page you can track how many more, or less times the page is viewed. By learning what content interests a visitor you can supply more of it rather than guessing what they're interested in. More interesting relevant content means potentially more visitors.

By tracking changes in the navigation to a page you can tell if the page then gets more visits. Pages could have content that a targeted visitor would find interesting but your existing navigation may be what's stopping them from finding them. By making a change to the navigation and tracking page views for that page over the following days, you can compare the results with what you had before the change was made.

By tracking any Adsense Ads you know which Ads are being clicked on and can therefore increase your exposure for those Ads.

You do this by creating similar content pages that will feature that type of Ad. This gives you the opportunity to get more Adsense revenue.

By tracking a targeted visitor returning to your website after clicking away you can judge how interesting they find your website.

How much do you know about what your targeted visitor does on your website before they made a purchase?

Tracking tells you what links a purchaser clicked on, what pages they viewed before they purchased and even if they came from one of your own Ads.

It's an established fact that most people don't make a purchase on the first visit. They will have a look around a website, then come back hours or days later, perhaps even several more times
before they make a purchase.

It's possible to track all this activity and even have a report emailed to you after your targeted visitor buys.

Armed with this sort of information you can see how often the purchaser returned before they made a purchase, on what dates and what pages they viewed.

If they kept coming back to the same page they could have found something they were unsure about. This gives you the chance to take a look at that page, experiment with some changes and
track the results.

If you think targeted visitor tracking is only within the reach of big corporate websites with big budgets you'd be mistaken. You can implement all the targeted visitor tracking I've described on any website, for a single payment of less than $120 and no monthly fees.

A targeted visitor tracking system that enabled you to make just minor improvements to your website could pay for itself in 17 days!

Let's say you get 45 targeted visitors to your website every day and 2% of them buy a product costing $47. Your website earnings would be 45 x 2% x $47 or $42.30 per day.

Now let's assume by using targeted visitor tracking you learn enough from your visitor behaviour to make some improvements to the content and navigation on your website.

Let's further assume your changes improve your website conversion rate from 2% to 2.1% and increase the number of targeted visitors from 45 per day to 50 per day because they find your content more relevant and interesting.

Doing the same math's again but with 50 targeted visitors and 2.1% purchasing the same $47 product, the website earnings would be 50 x 2.1% x $47 or $49.35 per day.

This means the minor improvements made from what you learned from your targeted visitor tracking have increased your website earnings from $42.30 per day to $49.35 per day, an increase of $7.05 per day.

This means from extra earnings of $7.05 per day and a targeted visitor tracking system costing $120 or less, the system paid for itself in 120/7.05 or 17 days.

In the 2nd part of this article Tracking a Targeted Visitor on Your Website I describe in detail, two systems that any website owner can use for targeted visitor tracking.

Now you have no excuse for gaining access to targeted visitor information you never knew you could and use it to your advantage.

Conclusion

Like many website owners you probably spend time and money getting targeted visitor traffic to your website only to get around 2% making a purchase. But you're pouring money down the drain if you don't learn from the 98% who didn't buy from you.

The only way to learn from a visitor is to ask them, or learn from their behaviour by finding out where they go and what they do on your website. The latter requires targeted visitor tracking systems in place on your website.

Even if what you learned from this targeted visitor tracking enabled you to make only minor improvements to your website, the system could pay for itself in 17 days.

About The Author:

Tony Simpson advises on website design, promotion and optimization. He also offers website design reviews through his Restricted Access Membership which is currently free to join, once you are accepted. The 2nd part of his article entitled "Tracking a Targeted Visitor on Your Website" is at http://www.webpageaddons.com/stp/targetedvisitor2

How Internet Marketers Can Create Their Own Powerful Niche

By Jeremy M. Hoover

For some reason, people who look to the internet to make more money or start their own online business are drawn to the internet marketing or home business industries. Ironically, these marketers (and I was one of them!) become affiliates for "make money from home" products, or buy reprint rights for the same, and thus try to sell something they have no experience in.

Sooner or later, new internet marketers will hear from an established "guru" that they should stay away from the internet marketing niche. Instead, they should find a "niche" they are interested in-for example, baseball-and focus their marketing efforts on that niche. The reason given by the gurus is that the internet marketing niche is already overcrowded, and "newbies" are going to have a hard time cracking that niche. (Of course, these "gurus" also encourage you to buy their products, because they will help you become a better marketer..)

While I agree that the internet marketing and home business industry is overcrowded, and while I do not think it is a niche at all, but a large overarching concept, I think it is still possible to carve out a niche within this concept for yourself. This is true, if for no other reason than there will always be new people coming online looking for ways to make money online. Why shouldn't you be the one to reach them? For myself, I found many other "money-making" websites before I found the gurus' websites.

So how do you carve a niche for yourself in this industry? For starters, brainstorm all the different aspects (niches) of internet marketing and home business. To get a list begun, here are a few: traffic generation, lead generation, web copywriting, autoresponder follow-up, product creation.

Here is a battle plan for creating your own niche:

1. Think hard about the products you affiliate with. Are they centered around one niche, like traffic generation? If you have too many products, whittle them down to a few you will focus on.
2. Build a website or an autoresponder series around your niche, and make sure it will establish you as knowledgeable in your chosen niche.
3. Drive traffic to your new niche website.

The best way to accomplish 2) and 3) is by writing articles and submitting them (and including them in your autoresponder series). Instead of writing about all aspects of internet marketing or home business, you specialize in traffic generation (for example) and become known as someone who is very knowledgeable about traffic generation. Build your business around this niche.

About the Author:

Jeremy M. Hoover is an online freelance writer who specializes in writing articles for website owners to use to establish themselves as experts, and to promote with. If you need articles, contact Jeremy through his site, www.jhooverwebcopy.com. Read more marketing articles by Jeremy at his marketing blog, www.jhooverwebcopy.blogspot.com

Web Analytics - More Than Just Numbers

By Stephen Oachs

UNDERSTANDING YOUR USER'S WEB SITE EXPERIENCE

According to WikiPedia.org, Web Analytics is defined as, "the monitoring and reporting of Web site usage so businesses can better understand the complex interactions between Web visitor actions and Web site offers, as well as leverage that insight for increased customer loyalty and sales." By tracking movement and monitoring the path and activity of site users, Web analytic tools provide valuable information about individual user behavior. This data provides you with important insights based on watching user movements within your website. You will be able to track how users navigate through your site, which pages are most frequented, where users exit your site and any number of other behavioral traits.

Visitor traffic statistics can tell you much more than how many customers visited your site on a given day. A good Web analytics service will provide you with the ability to slice-and-dice your visitor reports so that you can readily identify peak traffic periods by hour, day, week, month and year. The benefit to this granular breakdown is that you can identify trends that can be used to provide an enhanced user experience. For example, if your Web site is used to promote a restaurant, you might tailor your menu pages to display a lunch menu during peak morning Web traffic and a dinner menu during peak afternoon hours. Using Web analytics, you can identify the best hours to present dynamic content. Your Web developer can provide this functionality on your Web site, increasing your users' interest, providing them viable benefits over competitive sites, and bettering the chances that your visitors will find what they are looking for and not abandon their search in frustration.

DO WEB TRAFFIC REPORTS TELL THE WHOLE STORY?

If you are only crunching numbers, it is impossible to accurately judge whether a user has had a satisfactory experience at your Web site. They may have found the information they were seeking, they may even have purchased your products, but visitor number tallies alone cannot tell you if your visitors were confused or frustrated and whether or not they will return to your site in the future. Nor can they tell you what changes you need to make to reduce a user's pain threshold at your site or what changes should be made to increase the overall level of satisfaction with their site experience.

By analyzing the "click path" (also known as "clickstream") of your visitors, you can begin to understand their behavioral patterns. Then, suddenly, behavior analytics becomes a powerful tool for optimizing your Web site content and overall performance.

Click path reports can also be very useful in identifying a navigational issue commonly known as, "click distance." Click distance refers to the distance in which a user has to move their mouse in order to navigate your Web site. If your site navigation is cumbersome, you may be causing the end user more click distance and as a result they may not see, or find, links to pages that are important to your site's success.

In addition to click path and click distance, it is also important to understand the means in which your visitors access your Web site. Statistical information about their computer operating system, browser type and screen resolution can go a long way in helping you provide optimal content and navigation. For example, if your Web site provides a software download, you can improve your visitor's experience by dynamically directing them to a download page that is best suited for their computer type. If, in your operating system analytic reports, you find that you have a high volume of Mac users, then it would be wise to ensure that the nature of your content satisfactorily relates to them. Another great example of technology analytics would be screen resolution. If you have a large percentage of visitors viewing at 800x600 it would
behoove you to ensure that your Web pages view well at that resolution. If not, you are forcing unneeded horizontal scroll, which could in fact be a troublesome source of abandoned visits.

THE KEYWORDS TO SUCCESS

It is a well known statistic that 85% or more of Web site traffic is derived from search engines. Search Engines provide a fuzzy roadmap to billions of Web pages -- hopefully this includes yours. If you are listed, you really are the proverbial needle in a haystack, so maximizing your search engine relevancy is one of the most important marketing strategies you can employ. An additional benefit of understanding keyword relevancy is that this data will go a long way in helping you streamline your visitor's experience. Once you have the information, you can take your visitors directly to specific pages within your Web site, potentially bypassing irrelevant levels of information that might otherwise cause them to lose interest, thus prematurely exit your site.

Again, Web Analytics offers insightful information by providing you with actual keywords and key phrases used by real customers who found your Web site from a search engine listing. Within keyword reports, what you do not see is often more important than what you do. For example, if you sell red sweaters and the key phrase "red sweaters" does not appear in your search engine keyword reports, or has limited use, then this provides you with key information about your meta data and marketing efforts for that page(s). If you combine search engine click- through analysis with visitor click path (which pages they are starting on) you can instantly identify which pages are marketed well and which need improvement.

THE BIG PICTURE

To truly understand all the factors contributing to your Web site user's overall level of satisfaction, you must combine your knowledge of visitor traffic, behavioral analytics and
keyword analysis. This melding of data provides a far richer, extensive and complete picture of your user's Web site experience and provides you with a vital road map of the actions necessary to enhance your visitors' site experience; and this will keep them coming back.

About the Author:

The author of this article, Stephen Oachs, is senior project manager for VisiStat.com (http://www.visistat.com). Oachs has been in the industry for over a decade, specializing in online business and ecommerce development. He is a published writer, having written articles on a variety of Web development topics, including collaboration on the book, "Web Design Index," published by The Pepin Press (2000). Learn more at http://www.visistat.com or write Stephen at stephen@visistat.com