Blogs and SEO articles are an effective means of getting the word out and increasing publicity and revenue for your business, but climbing your way into a top listing on an engine search takes a bit of strategy.

First

There are sites that engineer their services specifically to businesses, such as Business.com and Bpubs. Some will request a small fee for their services. Other search engines, such as Yelp, which lists itself as an online community, will offer free services, including online tools to track the number of visitors to your site, but charge a fee for preferred search engine placement and extra listing features. Google Places is a free online service, with the added advantage of being one of the most frequently used and widely known search engines.

Second

The best way to place high in business indexing is to write original and informative content. You can treat your content in one of two ways; as a friendly, conversational blog, or as a formal, subject matter specific, article. Search engines give highest priority to sites that deliver fresh views and demonstrate activity by adding new content on a regular basis. Content should be written in your own words or in those of a skilled SEO writer. Search engines, such as Google, will penalize sites that “scrape” or copy content from other similar sites by not including them in a business search.

Third

Add quality links to your website. This is done by searching other sites that have similar interests to your own, have a good reputation as a reliable source for information and services, but that are not in direct competition. If your product is garden tools, you may wish to link to sites that contain gardening information or horticultural landscaping design. Many sites are willing to link if you offer a guest blog exchange. Quality links are defined as links to sites that remain active and maintain steady viewer traffic. Search bots will not consider links to “dead” or inactive sites used only for the appearance of receiving traffic.

Fourth

Your site will be most effective and attractive with good internal linking. Over time, you’ll find pages accumulate at your site as you add fresh content and new product information. These pages can become buried and forgotten, as they will not come up automatically. Make it easy for search bots to find hidden articles by placing fresh links in a new one. Do not use the words, “press here”. Your built in link should be for a keyword that will allow the reader to know exactly what the linked page is about, creating more willingness to press the link for additional information.

The quality of your site will be determined by the presentation of your material, interesting content and the strength of your links. You will gain more traffic by keeping your site active, adding new information and updating existing criteria. Register with a business directory and watch the interest in your website grow.

If you are new to article marketing and SEO, then you may wonder what the significance is of a site’s page rank. Technically speaking, Page Rank refers to a link analysis algorithm, and one that is commonly used by Google. (Actually, Page Rank is named after Larry Page, the co-founder of Google) Wikipedia states that Page Rank
“assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents.”

Online, you will find various page ranking services, including PRChecker.info, that can help you determine where your site is in terms of ranking. Entering a site name into this software can reveal to you that your site is PR0 through PR10.

The significance of the PR ranking is that, ideally, you want to create links that have a high PR ranking. Link exchanges are only valuable if the other site you’re doing business with is evenly matched and has high traffic. In fact, creating a bunch of low quality, low traffic links will probably backfire. Buying links is also a mistake, as search engines like Google and Yahoo consider context and relevancy when determining link popularity.

So, if you are investing in article marketing (which is essentially a form of linkbuilding) ask the SEO firm which directory sites it submits to, and what their PR rankings are. Submitting to a PR0 or PR1 site is not going to do you any favors. Ideally, you want to work with sites that have the highest levels possible, so that these links will be valued by search engines.

Some of the top directory sites in terms of popularity and high PR rankings include EZineArticles, Buzzle, Suite101 and Articles Base. Not only is quality linkbuilding important, but in the end, you want to work with these higher PR sites because that means more traffic for you!

For more information on creating quality links talk to an SEO consultant.

Since guest blogging is where the market is right now, we figured you might appreciate some help learning which blogs are worth submitting to—after all, there are many “dead” blogs in cyberspace, as well as many that are just too insanely popular for you to even try.

So let’s start with some common knowledge. There is no “one blog” in terms of popularity that is worth submitting to. Major publications that touch upon every aspect of life are often considered news magazines, even if they do sometimes have a blog format. Online publications such as The Huffington Post, TMZ or The Daily Beast, and so on, may occasionally publish outside submissions, but honestly, your best time investment would be spent more upon niche-focused blogs that match your writing content. Of course, this is no easy task considered how many blogs are out there—and popular blogs at that.

Start by studying the blog’s site ranking, and determining the level of competition you’re facing. Some popular blogs receive so many submissions that your chances are significantly reduced just by sheer numbers—unless of course, you have covered a topic that’s very news-friendly, relevant or “viral” enough to merit a posting.

You can also study content analytics to determine what type of topics and outlets might be appropriate for a guest blog. If you want specific blog names rather than taking your search to Google, then you might want to start with some of the most popular niche blogs online, such as Technorati, AllTop or Mashable.

Make sure to keep track of the blog’s theme and writing style. You may be rejected by an editor or blog owner if you are ignorant as to the writing style the blog enjoys; some are funny and snappy, others are more in depth and instructional in tone.

You also have to consider time commitment and whether you and the blog editor are on the same page as regards editing, keyword usage, and even scheduling. For instance, some editors will only want to publish a feature of yours every month; others will have a different time frame. Keeping track of the different guidelines is a great portion of the job.

There is the option of joining a blog network which does sort of take care of scheduling issues for you, but even so, don’t ignore the individual guidelines you receive, as these will determine your “publishability”.

Remember these two rules above all else. Make your pitch personal, whether it’s a story idea or an introduction. (And for the best results make it clear that this is a first option offering, meaning you’re not submitting the same piece to one hundred other blogs) and make sure that you are writing high quality original content that you can’t find anywhere else.

How important is your anchor text? Very important, if you want a high-ranking page in the search engines. Anchor text, or link label, link title or text link, is the visible hypertext you click on within a text to carry you to another page. The words you choose to highlight for your hypertext can determine the ranking you’ll receive in the search engines.

The anchor text is ranked highly by the search engines when the linked text is relevant to the landing page. When creating pages for your web site, anchor text is convenient for directing your viewers to other pages that contain additional information. It also ensures that all your pages are solidly linked so the reader can even find pages that have been buried under the input of fresh content.

Anchor text may also be used for linking to additional sites that compliment your own or that have related information. Linking to other sites helps create a strong network of shared viewers, and brings added recognition to the search engine algorithms. The anchor text can be up to sixty characters in link. It should be key word sensitive for best search results. Building a hyperlink that states “click here” or “more” will not add to your search engine optimization. It should be incorporated into the natural flow of the content.

Before using anchor text, take into consideration your type of website. If it is academic, the anchor text should be sensitive to academic material. If your web site is geared toward tourism, keywords such as “cruises” or “hotel accommodations” would be appropriate. When choosing your keywords, make sure the hyperlink leads directly to the type of information being sought.

Link only to other sites that will enhance, verify or extend the information on your own site. Make sure that it is an active site that routinely changes its content. Check to see if readers have left comments at the site. Reader comments are a good indication of the degree of interest other viewers have in the subject matter.

You may wish to develop an agreement with other sites for link sharing. Contact the site administrator through e-mail and discuss the possibilities of a link exchange and guest blog sharing. If you have a good site, with interesting content and links, the site will probably be agreeable as the shared links and guest blogging will be mutually beneficial.

Don’t go overboard on creating anchor links. Too many links in a single text message might send the reader off into multiple directions without ever finishing the first page. Keep your links controlled and to the point. Don’t let the reader forget why your page was accessed in the first place. Use your links only to provide additional information or to reflect back on the initial subject. Your goal is to optimize your page, but it is also to keep your reader interested.

At one time, SEO tags, or meta tags, were the primary factor in search engine optimization.  Theoretically, the meta tags are a clear, concise list of the most important themes of your page.  This description tag contributes to the search engine ranking.  Unfortunately, because of abusive practices involving SEO use, a great many changes have occurred in the policies concerning search engine placement.  This does not mean, however that keywords have lost their importance, only that they need to be used more wisely and with greater discretion.

When creating a keyword list, scan your pre-written page or outline for the most important factors.  Make a list of the ten or fifteen most important terms you see that reflect the content of your page.  Narrow the list from the most generalized terms to the most specific ones.  If your article is on scuba diving, “scuba diving” will not place very high on the very competitive search engine indexing.  If it includes a specific location, equipment or the dangers involved, these keywords will help in your optimization.  You have now narrowed your keywords down to scuba diving off the Florida Keys, scuba diving among sharks, or scuba diving using the latest technology.

Your keyword tags should adhere to the following principles: A) your list should not contain more than ten to twenty keywords or keyword phrases.  B) When creating your list, separate the words or phrases by commas C) Do not repeat your words or phrases within the listing D) Put your most important keyword at the top or within the first sentence of your article.

Although SEO tags will have no direct impact on rankings, they do help you as a business.  The primary function of your SEO tags is to give a clear, concise statement of what you are offering.  If your meta tags match the information typed in for a search, it will be picked up quickly and efficiently by the search engines.  For this reason, it’s very important to place the most significant information at the beginning of your description.

Your most important tags are in your title and your header.  In lesser order of importance from first to last, are keywords placed in bold, italicized words or phrases and anchor text.  Another important tag includes the refresh tag, which will load before the main body of the article and can be useful in a slide show presentation, but should never be used on an optimized site, as this could cause problems with the Google search engine.  Google does recognize, however, copyright tags and meta author tags, among others.

Google Penguin’s first strike was many months ago, but that doesn’t mean the time for healing and recovery is upon us. In fact, it’s likely that we’re going to get another peck from Penguin in the near future. Google announced that it made another update to its algorithm on the 5th of October. This is the third major iteration of its kind, and is said to be so big it’s being called Penguin 3.

Google’s Matt Cutts stated that the latest update is, once again, set to fight against spam links and “spam websites.” If you’re dreading another bottom out, take assurance in the statement that suggests Google’s latest update will only affect 0.3% of Google’s searches. It is already in effect as of this writing.

The effects are not going to be as dramatic as the first time around, or when Panda was first released. The first Penguin update affected 3.1% of all searches. Now of course, you have industry experts debating what 0.3% would be to Google users and Google-listed companies. Google claims that 0.3%, as an example, might be a change in a top 10 page. Nevertheless, considering Google’s ubiquity online and on mobile units, even a fraction of a point of change is going to be felt.

What should you do to stay safe of any Google Penguin changes? First thing’s first. Make sure that your SEO campaign is running consistently. Focus on regular content, high quality content, and only minimal keyword density for your targeted phrases. Focus on building higher quality links rather than a higher number of links and pay close attention to each page’s authority. Don’t buy links—earn them.

The priority in the current age is not in buying traffic or links but in content marketing, community building, striking up relationships with bloggers (guest blogging) and other “organic” approaches. However, keep in mind that you have to be flexible. In some cases, you have to be a survivalist. Many webmasters claim that they DO follow organic, ethical SEO strategy…and still get pummeled in the rankings whenever Google Penguin updates strike.

At that point, you have to attribute it to quality of writing, quality of links, targeted keywords and the competition you’re facing (not to mention Google Venice local SEO, which could be throwing off your perceptions). As the competition grows, expect it to be about competitive quality, and not just about adherence to the rules.

Be flexible in your approach and study what works. It’s a science and sometimes a gamble but when it works you definitely feel the benefits. For more information on this subject, contact an experienced SEO firm and ask for a consultation on SEO strategies for the year 2012.

Search engine optimization works best in the strategic placement of keywords. Examples of high-end keyword placement are in the title tag, your title, and in page copy. Since search engines do not see images, caption the images you use, placing a main keyword into the caption.

Search engines do have a preference toward key words that are typed in bold. Use bold within your title, sub-titles and one or two places of your text. Keywords should be scattered throughout your page, but the most important ones should be in the initial paragraphs. Place your main keyword in bold, as close to the beginning of your copy as possible. Use it two or three more times if suitable, but don’t overdo it. The search engines are very sophisticated and have a tendency to ignore keywords if it appears they are being manipulated.

If you choose to place keywords into italics, make sure the use of the italicized words are appropriate for the text. While search engines recognize bold as being a strong statement, italics are used for emphasis. Randomly italicizing keywords will not have an effect unless the phrase makes an emphatic statement. Bold text is given more weight than ordinary text. Italic tags, therefore, send a message that the word or phrase italicized is more important than the rest of the text. Choose your italicized words carefully to reflect the message of your text so they will give a comprehensive, cohesive message to the search engines. By using the italicized words throughout the page, it leaves the impression to the search engines that these words are important.

Underlining is done only for anchor text. Search engines use this text as a means of determining the subject matter of the linked to article. The links will tell the search engine when the text is being used to transfer to the documents of the linked site, which can strengthen the results for your own article. However, caution should be used in establishing too many underlined links, as this method could distract the reader from finishing your article. Underlined text is most effective when you use it to link back to one of your own pages, giving additional information.

Whenever you use bold, italics or underlining, be careful to not overdo it. Keep the flow of your text natural and appealing to the reader. Use bold, italics or underlining only when appropriate. Use your primary keyword in the title, first sentence, or at least one sub-heading. Place your sub-headings in bold. Place a keyword in at least one of your image captions. Remember that the reader wants content, and that the search engines have become very sensitive to the values of good content.